SAMMON TAKES POP AT GERS’ ROLE CALL

CONOR Sammon has accused Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha of disrespecting Kilmarnock by naming his Light Blues line-up a day early.

The Ibrox manager raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he announced his starting XI a full 30 hours before his side’s Rugby Park clash with Killie.

With a defence ravaged by injuries, the Portuguese coach confirmed youngsters David Bates and Myles Beerman would be making their first-team debuts at Rugby Park.

He later explained he had taken the unusual course of action as a show of faith in his depleted squad.

But Killie frontman Sammon says the move only served to fire up his side as they battled their way to a deserved 0-0 draw on Wednesday night.

“It’s a bit of a strange one to be honest,” he said.

“I don’t really understand the whole meaning behind it.

“I’m not sure if he was trying to highlight the fact maybe they had a few injuries or something.

“But we used it for a little bit of extra motivation by thinking, ‘Yeah, it’s a little bit disrespectful’.

“It just fuelled us even more to go out and do the business on the park — and I thought we did that.”

Caretaker Killie boss Lee McCulloch was adamant he did not change his starting line-up but he did tinker with his game-plan, putting Sammon up against teenage left-back Beerman down the right wing.