By Alistair Aird
It seems like an eternity ago now when James Tavernier thrust the league trophy skywards following a comprehensive 4-0 win over Aberdeen at Ibrox. Since then, Rangers have played 78 league games at Ibrox, winning 57 of them (73.08%). Of the other 21 matches, 13 have been drawn and eight lost. But as a stark illustration of the predicament Rangers find themselves at the moment, 50% of those eight losses have come since February this year.
Before St Mirren kicked off a run of three successive home league defeats and hammered the final nail in Philippe Clement’s coffin, only Celtic (twice), Aberdeen and Motherwell had left Ibrox with maximum points since we lifted 55. But 2025 has been an annus misarabilis thus far for Rangers supporters at our home stadium. After kicking the year off with a 3-0 win over Celtic, Rangers have won just six of the 14 league fixtures contested at Ibrox and only twice in the last 10. Danny Rohl has myriad issues to sort out and one of them has to make Ibrox Stadium a formidable fortress once again.
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One of the managers that registered one of those pre-2025 Ibrox league wins was Stuart Kettlewell. That came in March 2024 when his Motherwell side won 2-1 and brought to an end an 11-match winning Rangers run. And given that this Rangers side are mired in mediocrity – and that’s being generous – Kettlewell, who took over from Derek McInnes as Kilmarnock manager in the summer, would have arrived in Glasgow this afternoon confident of adding to that solitary success in Govan.
After witnessing another capitulation on Thursday night in Bergen, Rohl rung the changes in both personnel and formation ahead of his first home match as Rangers Head Coach. Out went Nasser Djiga, Joe Rothwell, Youssef Chermiti and Oliver Antman and in came Derek Cornelius, Mohamed Diomande, Danilo and Bojan Miovski. In terms of formation, talk pre-match was of 3-4-3 or 3-4-1-2, with Tavernier joining Souttar and Cornelius in the back three and Aasgaard either joining Danilo and Miovski in the front line or sitting just behind them in the number 10 role. Others were leaning towards 4-2-2-2, a structure Rohl had used in his previous roles both as manager and assistant.
The inclusion of Danilo may have raised eyebrows. The Brazilian’s minutes in his 12 appearances this season total 549. He has started five matches, but this would be his first in the league. His only goal, his thirteenth in 60 appearances for Rangers, came against Club Brugge back in August, and his last league goal had come against Celtic back in January.
But the surprise wasn’t necessarily due Danilo’s lack of action. If Rohl was going to deploy two centre forwards, one may have expected one of Kevin’s Kids – Chermiti – to be one of them. But the Portuguese turned in another insipid performance in Norway, missing an easy header in the first half with what was his only touch in the opposition box. That and his overall contribution drew further criticism and perhaps his exclusion was just good man-management by Rohl to avoid further flak.
En route to Ibrox the weather had been changeable, but ahead of the moment of silence as Rangers remembered the fallen, the skies were blue and the sun was shining. And the stadium was fuller than most expected and at fever pitch as a toot of Kevin Clancy’s whistle got the ball rolling.
The debate over the formation of the Rangers XI was answered shortly after kick off. It was indeed a back three of Tavernier, Souttar and Cornelius. Gassama was deployed as a right wing back, with Jayden Meghoma taking up a similar role on the left. Nico Raskin and Mo Diomande were central and Thelo Aasgaard looked to have a fluid role, dropping in to form a three when Rangers didn’t have the ball while having the licence to roam forward and support Danilo and Miovski when the home side were on the attack.
Kilmarnock were first to threaten, a shot from distance being smothered by Jack Butland. But Rangers, so often static and sterile this season, looked more dynamic and they too posed a threat going forward in a lively opening 10 minutes.
Loose play from Tavernier saw Butland’s gloves dirtied once again, although the Rangers goalkeeper wasn’t overly troubled by Greg Kiltie’s tame effort. But Tavernier made up for that lapse moments later when he created the opening goal. His free kick was curled into the area beautifully and Cornelius headed it into the net with aplomb.
It was the start that Rohl would have wished for. Any jangling nerves were settled, although there had to be a note of caution given events at Ibrox eight days previously. Rangers had been effervescent in the first half against Dundee United then familiarly flat in the second so that set a precedent that meant the home crowd weren’t going to be getting carried away.
Dominic Thompson flashed a shot across goal as Kilmarnock tried to edge their way back into the game before Meghoma – who had had an impressive opening half hour – surged down the left and was fouled. In the end, Tavernier’s free kick was neither a cross nor a shot at goal.
Although it hadn’t been one-way traffic, Rangers had looked more solid and their play had been much more vibrant. Passing was crisp and there was patience too as Kilmarnock steadfastly refused to abandon their ‘low block’ strategy. You felt that there would be more opportunities to puncture the visitor’s defence as the match progressed.
Lovely interplay involving Aasgaard and Danilo looked to have earned Rangers a free kick when Diomande was taken out. But Kevin Clancy saw nothing amiss, and seconds later, he was reaching for his pocket to book Souttar after the Rangers centre back robustly thwarted a Kilmarnock counter attack. And there would be further punishment to come. The free kick led to a corner from which George Stanger netted. Jack Butland, so often a safe pair of hands this season, was at fault, emerging from his line to claim the ball but missing it completely after misjudging the flight of it.
Rangers looked to have regained the lead in bizarre circumstances three minutes before the interval. The Kilmarnock goalkeeper, Edward Beach, thudded his clearance against one of his own players and when the ball was headed into the penalty area, Miovski, who had been quiet and ineffectual, nodded it into a gaping goal. But when VAR intervened, there was an inevitability about the outcome. The goal was ruled out for offside.
Defensive deficiencies were once more proving to be Rangers’ Achilles heel. They had been comfortable and in control for large swathes of the first half, but that one lapse at the back meant that they were firmly back to square one. The question now was how would a team that have clear issues when it comes to winning mentality respond after the restart.
Rohl took immediate action. Miovski was withdrawn and Mikey Moore was pitched into the action. That saw something akin to a 3-4-2-1 formation being deployed, with Moore and Diomande the two immediately behind Danilo.
Diomande was the first to get a sight of goal, but he skewed his shot horribly wide. Butland then had hearts in mouths when a languid and lazy pass almost created an opening for Kilmarnock.
And then the goal came six minutes in. After taking what seemed like an eternity to get the ball into the penalty area, Meghoma’s excellent cross picked out an unmarked Danilo whose header found the net via the post.
Having hit the front for a second time, it was now a matter of building momentum and cementing a long overdue home league win and a precious three points. But Kilmarnock almost eked out another equaliser after 57 minutes, Butland atoning for his first half error when he clawed away a header from Bruce Anderson.
Rohl went to his bench again on the hour mark, making a double change. Off went Gassama and Diomande and on came Max Aarons and Connor Barron. The alterations suggested a more stoic approach with Barron more pragmatic than Diomande and Aarons likely to be less on the offensive at right wing back than Gassama had been.
The next change would see Danilo replaced by Chermiti. Strikers feed off the confidence a goal brings and when you have been on the type of barren run that Chermiti has – save his recent goal for Portugal’s U21s against Gibraltar – grabbing that elusive goal can completely change your trajectory. And hopefully that will be the case now for Chermiti after he lashed in Rangers’s third goal on 72 minutes. The ball broke to him at the edge of the box and he fizzed in a shot with his right foot.
This could well be the turning point for the youngster and the squad as a whole. It’s still early for the man who is serenaded to the tune of ‘Daddy Cool’, but it you take away the cheaply conceded goal, this was as cohesive and coherent as Rangers have been in the league this season. Rohl deserves credit for achieving that with limited time on the training pitch.
Rangers finished strongly. Mikey Moore almost grabbed a fourth goal, but his shot was deflected wide. Cornelius then had a diving header cleared off the line from the resulting corner. Raskin also had an effort from distance that was pouched by the Kilmarnock goalkeeper. The little Belgian then had a goal ruled out for offside after he burst clear to dispatch a pass from Moore. He was flagged off by the assistant referee, and after the lines were drawn during a lengthy VAR check, the goal was indeed disallowed.
The win – only the second in the league this season and the first league win at Ibrox since May – lifts Rangers to the heady heights of fifth on the league ladder. The gap to Celtic has been cut to five points after they had been thumped 3-1 by runaway leaders Hearts earlier in the day. But we can’t afford to look that far ahead. Sights for now should be firmly set on Easter Road on Wednesday night.
The first bucketful of tarmac has been laid on Rohl’s road to recovery. How smooth that road will be remains to be seen, but for the first time in a while, the Rangers fans go home tonight after a relatively bump-free journey with a flicker of hope restored in their hearts.