McInnes criticises Rangers finishing after Dundee draw ends winning run

Derek McInnes criticised Rangers’ failure to make their chances count after a 2-2 draw at Dundee ended a run of seven consecutive victories and cost them the chance to return to the top of the Scottish Premiership. According to BBC Sport Scotland’s reporting, the Rangers manager identified both a poor first half and missed opportunities after the interval as problems in Saturday’s result at Dens Park.

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Rangers recovered from conceding to Bradley Fink, with Badredine Bouanani equalising shortly before half-time. Nicolas Raskin then struck from distance to put the visitors ahead. But Dan Neil’s misplaced backpass towards goalkeeper Ivor Pandur allowed Callum Jones to score Dundee’s equaliser, denying Rangers an eighth successive win after they had improved their performance in the second half.

McInnes told BBC Scotland that Rangers struggled to recover their momentum after conceding the second goal. He described the draw as a missed opportunity while acknowledging that Dundee had merited their strong first-half position. His frustration was also directed at the defensive cost of the result: he said Rangers should not need three goals to secure an away victory.

The manager praised his team’s opening 25 minutes after the break, saying that spell demonstrated their capabilities, but was critical of the performance before it. Speaking separately to Sky Sports, McInnes said Rangers had created opportunities better than the one from which Raskin scored and should have used them to settle the contest. He presented the failure to convert dominance into goals as a recurring issue.

BBC Sport Scotland reported that Rangers had scored 13 league goals against an accumulated expected-goals figure of just under 20. Their expected-goals total in the Dundee match was almost two. Those figures provided the statistical backdrop to McInnes’ criticism of finishing across the campaign, rather than simply the misplaced pass that led to the hosts’ late recovery.

The dropped points also left Celtic with the opportunity to move four points clear at the top by beating Hearts on Sunday. That gap was not yet confirmed when the report was published. For Rangers, the immediate outcome was a halted winning sequence and a manager demanding more from both their defending and their work in front of goal.