"Job done by hook or by crook": Naderi sends Rangers to the League Cup final as McInnes demands more
Sunday 1 November 2026 · By Fraser Quinn
Ryan Naderi's 83rd-minute goal beat Aberdeen 1–0 at Hampden on Saturday night in front of 43,567, sending Derek McInnes's side into the Premier Sports Cup final on Sunday 13 December. They will face the winner of today's Hearts v Hibs semi-final, which kicks off at 15:00 GMT.
The BBC reports that Rangers had 74% possession and 25 shots but only five on target before Naderi scored, and McInnes did not dress it up. "The job was to get the team and the club into a cup final and it's job done by hook or by crook," he said. "The stats will show possession, 25 shots, but to only have five shots on target isn't good enough." Of the winner, he said Naderi "is a bit of a parasite in the sense that he thrives off service". The BBC counts eight goals for him this season, including the winner at Celtic Park on 20 September.
It came three days after a late equaliser at Tynecastle. Kevin Kelsy put Rangers ahead after 16 minutes, Claudio Braga and Calvin Miller turned it round for Hearts, and Olwethu Makhanya headed in the 89th-minute leveller for a 2–2 draw. It was McInnes's first return to Tynecastle since leaving Hearts. "I thought we were fortunate to go in 1-0 up at half-time," he said, and of the reception he got: "It was exactly what I thought, it's football, it's Scottish football. Hopefully history can be kind."
The much-discussed handshake with Wouter Vrancken is best left in McInnes's own words: "I actually don't know [what happened]. Maybe just got caught up in the heat of the moment."
On the BBC table taken at 13:01 GMT, Rangers are second on 24 points from 11, four behind Celtic and four ahead of third-placed Hearts. About that unbeaten run: the BBC counts 11 games without defeat in all competitions, while in the league alone it is nine.
There was an SFA ruling too. Following the appeal over the closed-doors order from the 8 March Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox, the SFA lists the outcome as "Appeal Partially Upheld". It says the next home Scottish Cup tie remains behind closed doors, the suspended further closure and suspended further payment were set aside, and the £100,000 compensatory payment stands but is not due if the other Old Firm club is the visitor. The BBC describes the appeals as having failed. Rangers had not commented when the BBC published on 29 October.
On the injury list, McCrorie, Cammy Devlin, Shankland, Chermiti and Yokota were all listed as absentees earlier this week, with no update found since.
The next league game is at St Mirren on Saturday 7 November (20:00 GMT), then Aberdeen visit Ibrox on Tuesday 24 November. The BBC fixture list still shows St Johnstone v Rangers on Sunday 13 December, the day of the League Cup final. No change has been announced.
McInnes will want the next few games to look less like a scramble.
North is at the top. The west goal is in front of the Broomloan Road Stand; the east goal is in front of the Copland Road Stand. The plan is schematic and roughly to scale. The pitch is about 105 by 68 metres.
Ibrox Stadium is the home of Rangers Football Club, on Edmiston Drive in Glasgow (G51 2XD). For a visiting supporter it is one of the great away days in the British game: a tight, covered, all-seater bowl of a little over 50,000, with four stands close to the pitch and the noise held in. The record crowd, 118,567 against Celtic in 1939, belongs to the old terraces. Today every ticket is a seat, and the ticket itself is the map: stand, block and turnstile.
The ground is easy to read once you have the compass. The Bill Struth Main Stand runs along the south side and faces Edmiston Drive. Opened in 1929, this red-brick stand gained a third tier, the Club Deck, in 1991, and holds the dressing rooms, directors’ box and most of the hospitality. Opposite, to the north, is the Sandy Jardine Stand, still widely called the Govan Stand. It is two-tiered and was finished in 1981. The corners at each end of it are single-tier, with large screens above.
The goals sit at the short ends, hard against the stands. The east goal is directly in front of the Copland Road Stand, the traditional Rangers end and usually the loudest part of the ground. The west goal is directly in front of the Broomloan Road Stand, a near mirror of Copland, opened in 1980. Away supporters are at that western end, not behind the Copland goal.
Visiting fans are normally placed in the north-west corner, where the Sandy Jardine Stand meets the Broomloan Road Stand — the blocks often called Govan West — and sometimes in the lower tier of Broomloan itself. Bigger travelling supports, in the cups or in Europe, can be given more of the Broomloan end. Allocations change by fixture, so trust the block on your ticket. Come in from Broomloan Road, not the Edmiston Drive frontage, and check the turnstile number before you join a queue. Have the ticket ready on your phone or in your hand.
The Glasgow Subway is the simplest way in. Ibrox station is a short walk to the Broomloan side, and Govan is close as well. From the city centre, St Enoch to Ibrox takes only a few minutes. By road, leave the M8 at junction 24 (Helen Street) and follow the signs. The sat-nav postcode is G51 2XD. Streets around Edmiston Drive fill early, and match-day parking controls are often in force, so allow time if you are meeting a coach on Broomloan Road. Gates usually open about ninety minutes before kick-off.
Inside, expect a full house and a partisan crowd. The Copland end will sing for most of the ninety minutes, and the bowl keeps the sound in. There is no smoking anywhere in the stadium, including e-cigarettes. Flags are allowed only within the club’s published rules — short canes, no flag-surfing, and banners usually need a fire certificate — so read the conditions on your ticket before you pack one. Food and drink are ordinary concourse fare, and cards are widely taken. Keep bags small.
The pitch measures about 105 by 68 metres. From the away corner the sightline is decent rather than perfect: you are off to one side of the west goal, beside or beneath the screen, with the Main Stand filling the far touchline. Arrive early, find your block, and you will see why visiting sides talk about Ibrox long after the result is forgotten.