Scottish roundup: Danilo’s header gives Rangers last-gasp win against Hearts
The substitute Danilo headed in a dramatic added-time winner against Hearts as Rangers won 2-1 with two late goals to close the gap behind Celtic at the top of the Premiership to five points.
Celtic dropped two points at Hibernian on Saturday but Rangers’ prospects of taking advantage dipped when the Hearts captain, Lawrence Shankland, gave the visitors the lead after five minutes with a stunning header.
The mood inside Ibrox was not helped when James Tavernier smacked the post with a penalty at the end of the first half and there was more woe when the midfielder Nicolas Raskin was taken from the field on a stretcher after sustaining an injury when shooting.
However, in the closing minutes of normal time Philippe Clement’s side were awarded a second penalty after a VAR check for a Peter Haring foul on Connor Goldson and this time Tavernier slammed the ball in, before in added time the Brazilian striker Danilo, on for Cyriel Dessers at the start of the second half, nodded in for a victory which had looked unlikely for most of the afternoon.
“Clearly they had the reaction that I wanted,” Clement said. “Our strength needs to be that whatever happens in football, we never give up and we keep on repeating what we are doing because they are doing already good things together.
“Of course we need to still make better a lot of details but if we show the right mentality over and over again in every action and in the reaction afterwards then we are a really good team. That is what we showed together, not with 11 but with the whole squad, also the players who came in to give this energy.”
Aberdeen’s manager, Barry Robson, took responsibility after his side put in a laboured performance in a 2-0 defeat at Kilmarnock. Aberdeen failed to create anything of note as goals from Kyle Vassell and Marley Watkins either side of half-time gave Kilmarnock a deserved win.
Robson said he should have made more than the one alteration from the side who threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 to PAOK on Thursday in the Europa Conference League. “The biggest problem was probably my fault. I should have freshened the team up more.”
Kilmarnock’s manager, Derek McInnes, was delighted with his side’s first clean sheet in nine games as they secured back-to-back wins in the league for the first time this season to move up to fourth. “It’s nice to follow up a strong display with another and to see us sitting where we are in the league,” McInnes said.
St Johnstone and their manager Steven MacLean have parted company with the club bottom of the Premiership on four points from nine fixtures and without a win. The team lost 4-0 at St Mirren on Saturday.