Part 1 - Scottish Premier League - Match Review: Kilmarnock versus Rangers
Kilmarnock’s starting lineup: Bell, Hamill, Wright, Sissoko, Gordon, Kelly, Pascali, Bryson, Taouil, Eremenko, Sammon. Subs: Letheren, Clancy, Hay, Fowler, Rui Miguel, Silva, Forrester.
Rangers’s starting lineup: McGregor, Foster, Weir, Broadfoot, Whittaker, Naismith, Davis, McCulloch, Lafferty, Fleck, Miller. Subs: Alexander, Weiss, Kerkar, Loy, Perry, Wylde, Hutton.
The match started off brightly for Kilmarnock, who are more affectionately known as Killie. It was a wonderful pass by Eremenko who picked out Sammon with a superb cross field ball. The pass had accuracy written all over it as Sammon collected
it brilliantly. Eremenko’s pass gave Sammon the opportunity to shoot at goal but his shot was finely saved by the acrobatic McGregor as the Rangers goalkeeper spread himself wide and made himself big to deny Killie their first goal of the match. It was a brilliant
chance for Killie to open the scoring, a chance that that came back to haunt them later on in the match.
After Killie’s first chance in the 3rd minute of the match, the home side gained confidence. Eremenko was the brain in the midfield area for Killie as he directed all the attacking traffic of the match for the home
side. In the 16th minute of the match, Killie had another chance to open the scoring as Eremenko unleashed a belter from outside the box. It was a fantastic strike by the Killie man who was terrific although out the match for the home
side.
Eremenko’s shot was hit low and hard by the Scotsman but once again McGregor, the Rangers goalkeeper was on hand to save his team as he just tipped away the shot out for a corner kick. It wasn’t long before Killie capitalized on their
starting dominance as in the 19th minute of the match; the home team took the lead. It was Kelly who played in a finely timed pass into the Rangers penalty area who were totally on the back foot in the opening 20 minutes of the match.
Kelly’s pass found Sammon waiting inside the danger area as the striker made no mistake in applying a finesse finish to the move which gave Killie the lead.
Rangers were clearly shocked with the way Killie approached the match as they were not able to deal with the home sides pass and move game which troubled the Ranger’s defence time and again. In the 27th minute,
it was Taouil who surged deep into the Rangers penalty area. He went past three players before making his way into the danger area. Once he was inside the penalty area, he unleashed a tame effort which was held by McGregor who was solid for Rangers on the
night.
In the 40th minute of the match, Rangers were given a route back into the encounter as Sissoko brought down Miller inside the penalty area. The referee pointed to the spot as Miller made no mistake in converting
the spot kick into a goal for the Glasgow Rangers. Therefore the first half came to an end with both the teams deadlocked at 1-1. The second half kicked off with McGregor in action once again as the Rangers goalkeeper made an excellent save once again from
Sammon’s shot. Killie were on the offensive yet again as Gordon was caught late by Naismith. The Rangers player was booked by the referee for his foul on Gordon as the second yellow card of the match was shown to Naismith.
In the 55th minute of the match, it was drama once again as Rangers were awarded their second penalty of the match and Sissoko was sent off by the referee as he was shown his second yellow card for his second bookable
offence. This time the Killie defender brought down Lafferty inside the Killie penalty area. The referee spotted the tug and sent the Killie player off. It was a surprising turn of events as Kenny Miller took the penalty once again and yet again succeeded
in beating the Killie goalkeeper. Thus, Rangers took the lead for the first time in the match through their second penalty kick of the game.
In the 59th minute of the encounter, Kenny Miller had a glorious chance to round the game off for Rangers. The Scottish striker found himself in space in front of goal as David played him in through a lovely looped
ball over the Killie defence. However, Miller was not clinical with his finish as the ball rolled out of play. Kenny totally missed the target with his shot as Rangers failed to add another one to their lead.
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