Boyd ends nightmare: Rangers claim Scottish Cup

They had to drag themselves into a
two-goal lead against a Queen of the
South team who, in a spectacular
comeback, pinned Rangers back with
two goals in three minutes in their first
major final.

Rangers' Kris Boyd holds aloft the winners trophy after their Scottish Cup final soccer match 3-2 victory against Queen of the South

It was left to Boyd, who scored the
opening goal for Rangers in the 33rd
minute, to head the winner in the 71st
— to the massive relief of Smith, his
assistant Ally McCoist and the rest of
the Rangers bench.

They still had to endure 19 minutes of
tension, anxiety and the fear that
Rangers’ weary players might collapse
completely. They survived, though, to
clinch the Scottish double of League
Cup and FA Cup.

Smith made four changes from the
side who had lost all hope of the Scottish
Premier League title at Aberdeen,
bringing in Sasa Papac, Lee McCulloch, Boyd and DaMarcus Beasley.

There were moments of early
hesitancy in Rangers’ defence but it
was Boyd who settled them with a
spectacular strike from a free-kick
after Beasley had been fouled by Steve
Tosh, 25 yards out. Barry Ferguson
performed his best act of the afternoon
when he touched the ball gently to the
side and from there Boyd drove in a
shot that flew past Scotland Under-21
keeper Jamie MacDonald.

Nine minutes later Beasley spotted
the opportunity to drive in a low shot
past MacDonald.

But four minutes into the second half
Tosh pulled one back after a superb
run down the right from Sean
O’Connor, and three minutes later
Queen of the South equalised when
skipper Adrian Thomson headed
powerfully past Neil Alexander.

Smith’s anxiety was obvious to see
and was only relieved when Boyd
scored Rangers’ third with a superb
header after a corner.

Four minutes from the end Smith
created a little bit of history when he
replaced Jean-Claude Darcheville with
16-year-old John Fleck, who became
the youngest player to appear in a
Scottish Cup final.

The celebrations from Rangers were
long and intense. They had been
through hell after missing out on the
UEFA Cup and Scottish title in less
than two weeks.