Rangers moved up to second in the Scottish Premiership and reduced leaders Hearts’ advantage to three points with a 5-1 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox.
The evening started well for Danny Röhl’s Gers before news broke that Celtic’s game at Aberdeen had been postponed due to a flooded pitch. This gave them the opportunity to surpass their rivals and move up to second place and close to the Jambos.
It got better within 5 minutes. Killie’s Dominic Thompson clumsily brought down Djeidi Gassama as the Rangers player tried to control a neat pass, prompting referee David Dickinson to award a penalty and show the left-back a straight red card.
James Tavernier made no mistake on the spot, but the storm expected to follow did not materialize. Mikey Moore looked bright when cutting in from the left on several occasions, but otherwise showed a distinct lack of urgency or creativity.
James Tavernier opened the scoring from the penalty spot.
Despite being reduced to 10, the visitors should have remained at least the same level until the break. Greg Kiltie charged down the right and fed the ball back to Bruce Anderson, who somehow managed to fire a shot across the face and back of goal when it looked easier to score.
Bojan Miovski scored the decisive second goal.
Rangers breathed a sigh of relief when Bojan Miovski fired low after exchanging passes with Mohamed Diomande, which appeared to take the wind out of their opponents’ sails.
Oliver Antman scored the Rangers’ fourth goal.
January signing Andreas Skov Olsen made it 3-0 after 16 minutes with a stylish finish after a square ball from Moore, but some of the luster was taken away from a solid second half performance when Jack Butland gave Kiltie a consolation when he caught an ill-judged clearance.
Mikey Moore celebrates after scoring his fifth goal.
But the Rangers soon made them wish they had never done that.
Debutant Tur Rommens set up the fourth goal for Oliver Antman in the 90th minute and his outstanding performance was well-deserved when he stroked home after Antman turned provider before Moore scored.
Röhl remains nervous about Rangers’ title hopes.
Rangers manager Danny Röhl told Sky Sports:
“Five goals were good. It’s good to see some players scoring and having some time. I’m happy with the group. They work very hard, game after game, to win games. We knew before the game that it wasn’t going to be an easy game.
“I am very positive about this first situation, the pen, because we talked about exactly these runs after the Hibs game and in this case Gassama made exactly the attacking runs we needed more of.
“Everyone who plays football knows what it means to have 10 players behind the ball. You have to break them, you need patience. Then we created good chances, had a lot of possession, a lot of shots, created more scoring chances. But 5-1 is a good step, nothing more.
“I’m very present now. We have 13 games left and I know we still have a long way to go, but our group is great and deserves a lot of credit.”
McCann: The result seems unfair.
Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann told Sky Sports:
“There were so many things to like about (our performance). I really felt we were the better side in the first half because we had 10 men down. We were a little gassed in the second because we kept asking them to go forward. You have one or two players who have recovered from injuries to play last weekend and then ask them to come back in because they deserved it and they were just tired.”
“I think there were a few decisive moments in this game against us. Dom Thompson didn’t see Gassama coming. Maybe Gassama slowed down a little bit and started making contact. It’s too harsh because I don’t think every foul in the box should be a red card, but I understand the laws of the game. From then on we reacted brilliantly.
“But the most important moment of the game is 1-0. James Tavernier has already been shown a yellow card and the ball goes over his head, and when our striker Tyreece John-Jules scores, he completely pushes him away. There is no doubt there is contact and it is as big a contact as Thompson’s contact, but I was told there was not enough contact. I don’t understand what that means.
“I spoke to the fourth official who was very good tonight. I asked him why it wasn’t a red card and the explanation I got from the referee was that there wasn’t enough contact. It’s natural contact. It’s not, it’s coming from behind. James Tavernier was in a position where we were goal side and the contact was a player on the turn who scored a goal. Yellow or red, James Tavernier should have already been yellow and sent off.
“I think it’s a bit unfair to look at that scorecard. I told them in the dressing room that they should never give up and be proud. They never broke up. They were a complete team tonight. I think there’s a spirit in that dressing room and there’s courage about them too, which gives me the courage to go forward.”
