Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RANGERS AND TAVERNIER PAY PENALTY
SEEMS that one penalty just isn’t enough to get the job done these days.
Rangers and Killie will have do it all again at Ibrox in 10 days’ time after a turgid 90 minutes ended in stalemate.
This stalemate couldn’t even be broken by the reward of a sixth spot-kick in a week for Steven Gerrard’s side.
It was their one real opportunity to book their quarter-final place but it was spurned by James Tavernier in the 14th minute.
In a week filled with needle off the park between their two managers, neither of their sides managed to find the inspiration on it to make the difference.
The good news for Rangers is they’ll have Alfredo Morelos back for the replay a week on Wednesday, a quirk of the system that has to see him serve the last of his three-game ban in the Premiership rather than the Cup.
The bad news for them is that without their 23-goal striker, they cut a pretty toothless look from middle to front.
They’re also on a run that has only seen them beat a Stevie Clarke (inset, with Gerrard) Killie side twice in eight attempts.
It seemed to take Rangers an eternity to work out that Morelos wasn’t there as they knocked the balls into channels waiting for a chase Jermain Defoe was never going to make.
With their ongoing problem of a lack of a creative force in the middle of the park, their obvious route should presumably have been to use Ryan Kent and Daniel Candeias’ ability on the flanks to beat a man and deliver.
Their moments were all too fleeting in a disjointed first half.
It took a whole 14 minutes this week for the Ibrox side to get a penalty – but there was little question Alan Muir got it spot on. Kirk Broadfoot tried to smother Scott Arfield’s shot inside the six yard box but as he slid out, it was a handball all the way.
Tavernier – who’d delivered his first penalty miss for the club amongst the four they were given last week – didn’t hesitate to step up again.
The full-back was denied again, though, drilling it down the middle only to see Dan Bachmann saving the hell out of it, all the way back to the halfway line with his legs.
Mulumbu and Broadfoot both had glorious chances in a first half scramble but the deadlock was not to be broken.