Michael Beale extended his unbeaten run to 10 games as Rangers produced one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Scottish Premiership. The Rangers’ bandwagon kept moving under Beale, but not without some luck, as Ross County gave Ibrox fans a scare in the second half. Tillman, a first-half substitution, gave the Light Blues the lead with a header in first-half added time. However, the visitors stayed focused after the interval, and striker Jordan White equalized with a header in the 65th minute. The Staggies still haven’t defeated the Govan club, though, thanks to left-back Barisic’s deflected free-kick in the 75th minute that gave the Gers a tense 2-1 victory. Rangers pulled to within six points of the Premiership under Beale, who is unbeaten in 12 games (11 victories and a draw) since taking over as Gers manager in November.
Following the comprehensive 3-0 win at Hearts on Wednesday night—possibly the Gers’ best performance of the season—everything at the Ibrox club was upbeat going into the game. Beale made three changes, with the newly acquired Belgian midfielder Nicolas Raskin from Standard Liege starting on the bench. Goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin replaced Allan McGregor, and Glen Kamara and Tillman were replaced by midfielders Ryan Jack and Todd Cantwell. After a sloppy ball by Light Blues midfielder John Lundstram, County, who had midfielders Nohan Kenneh and Victor Loturi in place of Ross Callachan and Jordan Tillson, threatened first. Shots for a corner by George Harmon and Eamonn Brophy were blocked, which was encouraging but had no effect.
After 11 minutes, Tillman took over for Lundstram, who had been injured. Two minutes later, the 20-year-old Bayern Munich loanee caused mayhem in the Staggies’ box before Cantwell pounced on the clearance and sent a side-footed drive from the edge of the box just over the bar. The contest was rather open. In the 20th minute, Ibrox captain James Tavernier hit the crossbar with a shot before Alex Iacovitti’s header was stopped by McLaughlin at the other end.
After exchanging passes with Gers striker Alfredo Morelos, Cantwell stood up a cross from the byline for Tillman to head in from close range for his eighth goal of the season just as it appeared that the first 45 minutes would end scoreless. When he should have hit the mark, Morelos had time to head over from close range. For the start of the second half, which took a while to get going from a Rangers standpoint, Simon Murray replaced fellow January signing Brophy.
In the 62nd minute, Kamara replaced the out-of-touch Fashion Sakala, and shortly after, McLaughlin had to tip a strong shot from Kenneh over the bar for the first of three consecutive corners. On the final one, Yan Dhanda received a short corner and fired a ball in for White to flash in a header with McLaughlin flailing. Ibrox was in disbelief at the result, and the home team had to react. Ross Laidlaw made a fantastic save on Ryan Kent’s shot, but he was helpless to stop Barisic’s free-kick just outside the area. The ball took a nick off the top of the wall, leaving Laidlaw helpless as the ball flew in at the far post.
For a while, Rangers surfed the energy wave. Before Raskin and fellow replacements Scott Wright and Antonio Colak entered the game to make their debuts for the Gers, Morelos’ shot on the turn produced a fine save from Laidlaw. They were unable to prevent a tense last few minutes in which the home team ended up barely hanging on.
“Today’s early appearance by [Malik Tillman] and Todd Cantwell really caught my attention. Our two best performers of the day were definitely them. He scored again by bursting out of the middle, something I believe he does quite well. I think it is excellent to have a midfielder that can advance, score frequently, and provide assists. He is a fantastic player in our league,” Rangers boss Michael Beale said. “I wanted Raskin to experience Ibrox for the first time, so it was crucial to offer him the opportunity. He came on and had some nice touches, and he can see that I trust him. Additionally, he was sprinting out of the middle in an effort to contribute in the final third. Even though he displayed some good touches today, I don’t think we can assess him on that.”
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