Rangers to debut orange fourth kit against Hibernian

Rangers will debut their new fourth kit tonight at Easter Road as Danny Rohl and his side head to the capital to face Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership.

The club announced the orange jersey, shorts and socks combo on Saturday, a day before the club defeated Kilmarnock 3-1 in Rohl’s domestic debut in the dugout at Ibrox.

The kit had been leaked Friday morning, as staff at the Glasgow Airport store mistakenly stocked the shelves with the kit early and passers by snapped photos of the unreleased combo.

Due to this the club then released it early, officially announcing it on their website and social media channels on Friday. With the club confirming via social media the side would be wearing it against Hibs tonight.

Rohl and Rangers look to leapfrog third placed Hibs tonight, needing a victory to do so and to become the first league side to win against David Gray’s Hibees at Easter Road since St Mirren’s win in Edinburgh in early November last year.

The Gers could also cut the gap on lead leaders Hearts, who travel to Paisley to face St Mirren, and managerless Celtic, who take on Falkirk at Celtic Park with interim boss Martin O’Neill on the sidelines.

Rangers have already released their home kit, which debuted in a friendly match against Club Brugge at Ibrox, their white away kit with red and blue torso trim, which was first worn in a behind-closed-doors friendly with English Championship side Barnsley at their pre-season training camp at St. Georges Park and their charcoal/anthracite black third strip in last Thursday’s defeat in Norway against SK Brann in the UEFA Europa League, which was also Rohl’s first match in charge after being appointed last Monday.

The Ibrox support have been positive in their reception of all kits made by Umbro this year on the whole, who took over from Castore in the summer, with the orange fourth kit being particularly well received, despite complaints about the timing of its release post-Brann.

However, the fans are superstitious about the first outing with a kit released within a season, as shown with the third kit’s debut in Bergen, they often are adorned for the first time in a defeat.

This was also true in the clubs last title winning campaign in 2020/21.

Despite winning the Scottish league title undefeated, the club wore a stylish retro kit in their Scottish League Cup quarter-final clash away to St Mirren in December, where they suffered their first defeat of the season, losing 3-2 to the Buddies in the last minute to end Steven Gerrard’s treble dreams.

In the 90’s Rangers would furnish themselves in a purple kit in a European match with AEK Athens, which the club lost. A restyling of the kit was also used to face Malmo in 2021, when Rangers exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifying stages again.

Rangers did however, debut a white fourth kit in 2022, defeating Dundee 2-1 away in its only outing.

Will the superstition carry weight tonight? Or will Rangers prove that the colour of the shirt has no play on the result? We will see.