Goldson’s Late Header Lifts Rangers 2-1 Over Killmarnock

In a slog of a match at Rugby Park, Rangers took all three points home thanks to a last-minute goal by Connor Goldson.

It was shades of last season, where Rangers struggled to beat a deep and organized defensive squad, and especially struggled to break Kilmarnock, and even more so when at the plastic pitch at Rugby Park.

Things got off to an excellent start for Rangers, dominating play and putting almost constant pressure on Kilmarnock in the early moments of the match. Rangers were rewarded from their impressive play with a goal in the 16th minute.

After winning a corner kick, it was sent in and the fearless Nikola Katic headed it towards goal with great power. The Kilmarnock keeper was able to parry it away, but it came right to the feet of Scott Arfield, who skillfully took it off a tricky bounce to slide it the few feet ahead of him into the goal.

It was a joyous start to the new season and it appeared that Rangers would be heading towards a romping afternoon, but it wasn’t to be.

Rangers played very well for much of the first half following the goal, Alfredo Morelos in particular was a great nuisance to Killie, but they didn’t manage that second goal to put the game into comfortable territory.

That said, when Rangers returned for the second half things still felt fairly comfortable. Rangers had totally dominated proceedings and Kilmarnock looked largely lost on the pitch. But Kilmarnock responded in the second half, coming out of their shell and putting pressure on Rangers. At the same time, or perhaps because of that pressure, Rangers got very sloppy in the midfield and often lost possession in silly fashion.

The game ground to a halt, with Kilmarnock starting to get more and more threatening while Rangers got further and further onto the back foot. Eventually, in the 83rd minute, Rangers broke on a free-kick.

The ball was put into the box and somehow Killie had a free runner, Stephen O’Donnell, who controlled the ball and rifled it into the top of the net above Wes Foderingham who had guessed the shot would go low.

It was a truly gutting moment. After being so hopeful it truly looked as though nothing had changed for Rangers and they would come out of opening week with just a single point before heading into a highly difficult European match-up in Denmark.

But giving up the goal seemed to light a fire back into Rangers. Jordan Jones came on late and was very active while James Tavernier in particular started to push the ball up the field hard as Rangers desperately searched for a goal.

Eventually, they found it.

In the 90th minute, stoppage time just started, Rangers won a corner and James Tavernier sent in a lovely ball that big Connor Goldson headed powerfully into the net. There was pandemonium which included some fans coming onto the pitch (and a couple somehow got on top of a roof which fell in and injured someone. Please help the proper authorities find whoever did that because it’s disgraceful) and the match was decided.

Rangers had to just hold on for a few minutes, which they did, and they escaped Kilmarnock with all three points even if it wasn’t all that pretty.

This match certainly doesn’t give a great deal of confidence after Rangers had similar issues against Progres, but what exactly it means won’t be known for some time. As it always is on the season’s first weekend, we just don’t know how good or not good Kilmarnock will end up being. On one hand, this is the team that is coming off a pair of excellent seasons and how this match went is something they did to everyone all of last season. If Killie don’t have too much of a dropoff from last season then this performance is a perfectly acceptable one.

On the other hand, they’ve lost their coach and a decent number of players and lost to a part-time Welsh team in Europe so maybe they will be very bad and this match, even with all three points, should be a huge red flag. Only time will tell.

Rangers wore their new all-red kits and while I am typically in favor of Rangers wearing as much blue as they can at all times it is hard to deny that the kit looked very crisp. All I’m saying is that if they must go to a kit with (I think) no blue in it this is an acceptable way to do it.