Tale of the Man United tape

Ahead of the friendly meeting on Saturday at Murrayfield with Manchester United, we decided to dig into the archives and recall the previous encounters the two sides have had.

There’s been four competitive meetings, all in the Champions League group stage, though Rangers have never got the better of the Reds.

You have to cast your mind back nearly 21 years to October 2003 to remember the first match at Ibrox.

It was Sir Alex Ferguson’s first game against a Scottish side as United boss, and he was fortunate to witness a win given Rangers’ persistent press. Phil Neville’s goal inside the first five minutes was the difference on a day Tim Howard turned up trumps for the visitors.

Three weeks later, the sides met again in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford at it was a much more comfortable win for United. Diego Forlan spectacularly opened the scoring before Ruud van Nistelrooy scored either side of half-time to beat Alex McLeish’s side.

The two giants didn’t face-off for another seven years, and when they eventually did, they couldn’t be separated south of the border. Walter Smith’s players stuck to their plan and came back up the road with a point.

Another blank looked on the cards in the reverse until Wayne Rooney’s fired United ahead – and into the last 16 of the competition – with an 87th-minute penalty after Steven Naismith’s high challenge on Fabio da Silva.