CORT VERDICT RETURNED
Fabio grabs clincher but Oscar still shines brightest as all three recruits help see Gers into last eight
RANGERS fans expressed their appreciation for borna barisic to the tune of Karma Chameleon after his first goal of the season.
But following an impressive full debut at Ibrox it was another left-sided star they’ll be hoping doesn’t come and go in the next few months.
oscar Cortes was thrown in by Philippe Clement for his first start since joining on loan from Lens as Rangers eventually saw off Ayr to book a spot in the Scottish Cup quarter-final.
And the Colombian’s 60-minute show had the Light Blues’ faithful singing his praises as he proved his arrival can bring a little more culture to the club.
Whether he stays beyond the four months of his loan deal is a question for another day.
But as first impressions go, this was a pretty positive start to life in Govan.
Clement handed all three of his January signings starts against the Honest Men with Mohamed Diomande occupying an advanced midfield role and Fabio Silva leading the line up-top
But while the latter might have grabbed the headlines with the clinching goal that came half an hour after he was fortunate to avoid a second booking, it was Cortes who shone brightest.
Quick feet and a boot full of tricks combined on more than one occasion to leave a white shirt unscrewing themselves out of the turf.
Cortes dovetailed brilliantly with Barisic in the opening 45 minutes, cutting in on the inside and then bursting outside as Rangers drove Ayr back.
The Lens loanee also showed a desire to have a crack at goal himself. Indeed, the 20-year-old could have had two goals before he even teed-up Barisic’s 10th-minute opener in a blistering opening to his first Ibrox start.
It’s early days of course and Cortes will face tougher tests than against the Championship side, as impressive and combative as Ayr were. But the suggestion is there that the Lens man might just be the solution Clement’s been hunting to fill the Abdallah Sima-shaped gap on the left of his frontline with the Senegal striker facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines. His bright performance was welcome in a game where the pre-match talking points were centred on two characters who were persona non grata in the minds of the Light Blues faithful. Scott Brown’s presence in the away dugout for only his third game in charge of Ayr was always going to bring a sense of pantomime to the tie.
Willie Collum’s appointment as referee – for his first Gers game since the Ibrox club asked for him not to be involved in any more of their matches after the Old Firm penalty rammy – added extra fuel to the fire.
Clement may have urged his club to move on from Collum-gate but just two minutes in, the home support showed they weren’t quite so willing where Willie was concerned with a 60-second chant at the ref ’s expense.
Public enemy No.1 – or two de for dec fro
pending on the level of dislike Brown – saw every single ision go under the microscope m the home support. Whether the pressure of the ation was behind his decision to book Silva a second time er a few minutes of the second f when he caught George nger late, nobody will know. ut his choice to flash yellow at wn rather than Silva for the Ayr s’ reaction to the flashpoint did least see Collum hand the ten of most disliked man in ox back to the character nding in the away dugout. hat moment could have been critical to the outcome too with Rangers only one goal to the good.
That arrived after 10 minutes when Cortes took a pass from Scott Wright on the left, hit the byeline and when his first cutback was blocked he picked out Barisic on the edge of the box with the Croatian slamming home his first goal of the season via a deflection off Roy Syla.
Cortes had already clipped the outside of the post with a curling right-oot shot after combining with Barisic and had seen another decent effort sting the palms of Robbie Mutch before his work in setting up the opener. And he went close again with five minutes of the first half remaining when he tried his luck at an angle, this time with his left foot, only for the ball to drift wide of the far post.
Ayr’s best chance of the first half fell to Anton Dowds after Syla had pick-pocketed Connor Gordon and sent the big striker free.
Fortunately for Rangers John Souttar was alive to the situation and got back to foil Dowds with a perfectly-timed tackle.
If that was a let-off then Rangers were breathing another sigh of relief just two minutes after the break when Ben Dempsey had a clear sight of goal but slammed his shot wide from Jamie Murphy’s cross. Ayr were getting right under Rangers’ skin and the home support were desperate for a second goal to calm the nerves.
Cortes had an overhead kick booted off the line before the man of the match was replaced by Rabbi Matondo on the hour mark.
But it was another sub, Todd Cantwell, who finally produced the piece of magic to put the game to bed. He got to the byeline in the 76th minute and dinked a delicious cross to the back post that was initially hooked off the line but only into the path of Silva who slammed high into the net.