Flying high towards the Battle of Britain
It may still be a few weeks away, but Rangers’ striker, Antonio Colak, and Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino showed they are warming up nicely. Both hit doubles yesterday, the Croatian in the 4-0 win over Ross County and the Brazilian in the nine-goal rout of Bournemouth.
RANGERS 4 Lundstram (24), Colak (39, 58), Davis (80) ROSS COUNTY 0 What a difference a week makes in football.
Last Sunday, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was dealing with the frustration of his side losing a late goal against Hibs as they finished the 2-2 draw at Easter Road with nine men.
The Rangers boss was mulling over what to do with the red-carded Alfredo Morelos and decided to drop him from the squad that went to Holland for the crunch Champions League qualifier against PSV Eindhoven.
The Morelos situation is one that won’t go away and van Bronckhorst will meet with the Colombian today to discuss his future.
The manager’s situation, however, is a lot stronger than it was seven days ago. Antonio Colak got the goal that took Rangers into the Champions League group stages and yesterday he hit a double in the victory against Ross County.
Morelos is in the final year of his contract but he is no position to make any demands of his boss during the talk – Colak has seen to that.
Van Bronckhorst said: “I’m happy with Antonio. He is in a very good moment. The start he had for us has been fantastic.
“We just have to make sure we keep pushing him and he keeps giving the performances we want. “Morelos worked hard this week so I’ll sit down tomorrow and speak with him about his future.
“He’s still our player, he knows what he has to do to become available again. The first week’s reaction he showed was very positive.”
While the atmosphere was nothing like a European night, there never seemed any possibility of Rangers slipping up against County. Things, however, might have been different if they’d had a man sent off at 0-0.
The Light Blues started in a solid, if unspectacular, fashion and got stronger as the match wore on.
Ross Laidlaw had to make a series of good saves before John Lundstram broke the deadlock midway through the first half.
The small band of fans who travelled down from Dingwall will, however, maintain Rangers should have been down to 10 men at that point.
James Sands was booked after only 10 minutes for pulling back striker Jordy Hiwula.
He was involved in a very similar incident just seven minutes later when he hauled down the former Doncaster Rovers man. On this occasion, referee Don Robertson elected not to blow his whistle.
To not even award a free-kick, never mind issue a yellow card, was strange. It might even have been a straight red because Hiwula was through on goal.
After being handed that slice of luck, it was an effort from distance that put the home side in front.
Kent played the ball into the path of Lundstram and, perhaps inspired a booming shout of “Shoot!” from the stand, his shot from outside the box was deflected into the net.
Colak made it two when Wright clipped over a cross from the right
flank and the Croatian sent a volley spinning inside the far post.
Colak’s second goal – his seventh in seven games – was beautifully created by Kent.
The winger played a speedy onetwo with Lawrence and slid the ball into the path of Rangers’ number nine to hammer home.
It seemed an odd move to later replace Colak with Steven Davis, especially when a front man like Sakala could do with minutes on the pitch. It led to Arfield often occupying the centre-forward role, but Davis was the man who made it 4-0.
Tavernier provided the supply and the veteran finished from close range.
Rangers play Queen of the South at home in Premier Sports Cup and Van Bronckhorst has promised his fringe players an outing.
He said: “We have a big squad. I could have easily picked some of my bench players to start this game.
“You see with the changes we made that our intensity and level of playing doesn’t drop. That’s what you want as a club and as a manager.”