Gers move 11 points clear after seeing off understrength Dons

Rangers moved 11 points clear in the Scottish Premiership with a 4- 0 victory over an understrength Aberdeen at Ibrox yesterday.

First- half goals from Ryan Kent and Kemar Roofe sent unbeaten Rangers on their way to a 13 th win in 15 league games as Steven Gerrard’s team took full advantage of Celtic dropping two points against Hibernian on Saturday.

The contest was well and truly finished early in the second half when Scott Arfield scored a deflected third and James Tavernier hit his ninth penalty of the season.

Celtic have two games in hand but Rangers showed the gap between themselves and the l e a g u e’s third-placed team, albeit the Dons had a host of selection problems.

Aberdeen had only lost once in the league since going down to Rangers in a disappointing openingday performance, but they were without eight players.

Manage r De rek McInnes was already missing the injured Niall McGinn, Marley Watkins, Dylan McGeouch and Jonny Hayes along with on-loan Rangers player Ross McCrorie, before the la t te r ’s po s i t ive coronavirus test forced Scotland Under-21 teammates Connor McLennan and Lewis Ferguson into self-isolation. On top of that, Scott Wright was a surprise absentee.

Rangers went with Alfredo Morelos up front with Roofe and Kent supporting and the latter could have scored in the third minute after beating the offside trap following Tavernier’s through ball, but Joe Lewis saved the one-on-one.

Kent scored from a far more difficult opportunity in the 15th minute. The former Liverpool winger nutmegged Funso Ojo and fired a 30-yard shot which spun off Tommie Hoban’s face and the post before hitting the net.

Ojo got away with a clumsy penalty-box tackle from behind on Roofe before Aberdeen created two chances. But Sam Cosgrove and Ryan Hedges were too far wide to cause Allan McGregor real problems.

Roofe doubled the lead in the 29th minute when he latched on to Connor Goldson’s ball over the top of Andy Considine and ran through Greg Leigh’s challenge before hitting a shot in off Lewis.

Rangers were denied a third by a flag after Joe Aribo’s shot hit the offside Roofe before Ar field tucked home the rebound.

Any hopes of a Dons ch a l l en g e w e r e extinguished inside eight minutes of the restart.

Arfield scored from his second chance in the opening four minutes when his shot hit off Shay Logan and deceived Lewis after the midfielder had been set up by Kent.

Tavernier netted his 13th goal of the season after Considine had been penalised for a pull on Leon Balogun at a corner.

Rangers were able to bring on internationals Steven Davis, Jermain Defoe, Glen Kamara and Ianis Hagi while Aberdeen had four players on the bench without any firstteam appearances, and five others who only have one league start between them this season.

Kemar Roofe celebrates after scoring the second goal.