Caixinha accused of disrespect after naming team a day early

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 firstteam 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 that 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 after Caixinha dispensed with the element of surprise.

But he did tinker with his gameplan, putting Sammon up against teenage left-back Beerman down the right wing.

The 18-year-old former Manchester City winger stood up to the test well and Sammon reckons he could have a big part to play for Rangers going forward.

The Irishman – who was lucky to get away with a clear second-half handball inside his own box – said: “He’s a smallish full-back but I thought he did well. You can see he has a bright future in the game.

“We are always trying to play to our strength and pick up on little weaknesses that we think we can get at.”

Pedro Caixinha raised eyebrows with early team announcement.