Boyd back to haunt his old club as Killie prove they’re the real deal
RANGERS 0 KILMARNOCK 1 Boyd 55
Graeme Murty admitted his players were second best against Kilmarnock.
Back-to-back defeats means Rangers have gone from title contenders to scrapping for second place in the Premiership.
The Light Blues have now suffered seven home league defeats for the first time in more than 100 years.
That is central to their failure to pull away from the other sides.
Although not all of the defeats have come during Murty’s time in charge, the poor form at Ibrox could come back to dent his hopes of continuing as manager.
In contrast, things couldn’t be better for Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke.
His side are almost certain of claiming a top six place and the players have been given a week off as a reward.
Murty lamented the lack of victories in front of a home crowd.
He said: “The players know this place needs to be turned into a fortress. We haven’t managed to do that.
“This season at home we haven’t been good enough.
“That’s been encapsulated by this game, where a team has come and been very organised and made it difficult for us to play.
“They capitalised on us making a mistake.
“That seems to be a theme of this stadium this season and it’s one we’re keen to break.
“They reacted to the first and second ball faster than us, that was a consistent theme.
“Too often we were second best.” Kilmarnock under Steve Clarke are one of the most disciplined sides out of possession and that was vital in them beating Rangers for the second time this term.
An energetic display with lots of movement was needed by Rangers, but they failed to deliver.
Jason Cummings replaced Alfredo Morelos in the starting line-up and looked an isolated figure at the head of the Rangers’ attack.
Kilmarnock began to press further up the pitch as half-time approached and took heart from the way this created a couple of openings near the home goal.
They started the second half in
the same way and took the lead before reverting to their original policy of being content to attack on the break.
Foderingham parried a Mulumbu shot and former Rangers favourite Kris Boyd was on hand to tap home his 20th goal of the season from close range.
Rangers brought on Morelos and Kenny Miller but even a three-man attack could make little impact on the Killie defence.
Russell Martin was the man who came closest to scoring for the Light Blues.
He missed the target with a free header during the first half and then hit the bar with 15 minutes to play.
Rangers now have the international break to lick their wounds after being beaten by Celtic and Kilmarnock in less than a week.
The Killie boys can put their feet up.
Rugby Park boss Steve Clarke said: “We all deserve a little pat on back. We’ve given the players a week off because they deserve it.
“It took us time to grow into the game and in the last 15 minutes we were digging in, but I don’t have enough words to praise the group. They find a way to get results.
“I don’t take credit. I give credit to the people I work with.
“My staff are excellent, my
players have been magnificent and the crowd have been great as well.
“There maybe weren’t as many here, but you could hear them shouting and screaming in the background.
“When your two brothers are Kilmarnock fans, you know how excited they are at the moment.
“It’s good for the club, but we haven’t done anything yet.
“Ok, we’ve maybe just about sneaked into the top six and that would be remarkable considering where we were when I signed for the club in October.”
Kris Boyd has now scored three times in two games against Rangers.
He wasn’t in the least surprised to be leaving Ibrox with all three points.
“It’s not a fluke, the run we’re on,” he said.
“It would have been easy for us to let our heads drop after going out of the Scottish Cup last Tuesday night.
“But we now have real belief in the team. The top six is more or less done now but we’re trying to push for five or fourth.
“When you come to places like Ibrox you need to work hard and hope for breaks, but in this game we did better than that and played some great stuff.
“Apart from the first 10 minutes, I felt we controlled the game.”