Diomande strikes late as Rangers dig deep to beat Livingston

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Mohamed Diomande’s late goal gave Rangers a hard-fought 2-1 win over Livingston as the home side struggled badly on their return from a costly international break.

John Souttar, Derek Cornelius, Mikey Moore and Youssef Chermiti were all ruled out through injuries sustained with their respective countries, which allowed Emmanuel Fernandez to make his third start since signing from Peterborough in the summer and the 24-year-old centre-back headed the Light Blues in front after nine minutes.

However, Livi’s Australian striker Tete Yengi levelled after 18 minutes when he took advantage of awful Gers defending and the home side’s overall play deteriorated, lacking urgency and guile.

However, Diomande tapped into an empty net in the 78th minute after substitute Bojan Miovski had stretched to set him up for his first goal of the season, and it ensured four league wins in a row for the first time in this troubled Premiership campaign.

Danny Röhl had to dig deep into his squad and he fielded an unusual centre-back pairing of Fernandez and Wolves’ loanee Nasser Djiga, while Brazilian striker Danilo led the line.

In the first game since Scott Fry was appointed set-piece coach at the Govan club, the Light Blues drew dividends when captain James Tavernier’s corner from the right was met by the towering Fernandez and he bulleted in a header for the opener.

However, old Rangers failings soon resurfaced.

Yengi was able to latch on to a long ball from Stevie May and the big striker took a touch and raced away from Djiga and the chasing Fernandez to slide the ball past keeper Jack Butland for his first strike of the season, the goal surviving a VAR check for offside.

The goal unsettled Rangers – and the crowd – and Yengi struck a shot off Fernandez from close range as the West Lothian men threatened again – and it looked like the ball came off the defender’s arm, although play continued.

Rangers were laboured in their build-up, which frustrated the home fans, while Livingston kept disciplined and attacked sporadically with growing confidence.

Miovski replaced Thelo Aasgaard for the start of the second half which was just over a minute old when he headed a Tavernier cross over the bar from 10 yards.

The home side heard the anxiety from the stands as the second half unfolded further.

In the 70th minute, after a rare flowing Gers attack, Miovski cleverly played in Djeidi Gassama but the attacker cut back on to his left foot and curled the ball past the far post.

Moments later, at other end, it took a great save from Butland with his foot to deny Yengi after the Livi forward had capitalised on a Tavernier slip.

Then, when Diomande stroked the ball into the Livi net after Miovski got a toe to the ball just before Livingston keeper Jerome Prior, the offside flag went up but a VAR check begged to differ and the Gers fans had cause to cheer.

They were given a fright when Livi substitute Robbie Muirhead fired a volley just over the bar deep into added time, but their side held out.

Röhl: We have to improve

Rangers head coach Danny Röhl speaking to Sky Sports News:

“We know that we have to improve in parts of the game.

“I think today was the first time that we really played against a deep-block defence line, and this is what I mean, if you play them too slow then it’s hard to break the last line. I think in the second half we came more behind the last line, and that’s much, much better.

“This football, for me it’s then about a result, I will speak with my players about how and what we want to improve, but I’m happy with this effort and four wins in a row is a good start.

“When you play against the bottom of the table then everyone wants to see more goals and exciting football. But more important is that my mind is very clear, I know what I have to give my players, it’s not emotion at half-time, it’s about giving them a solution.

“It was done better, not everything was perfect in the second half, but at the end, I think we go home, look to our four wins in a row and say, OK, we’ll make the next step.”

Martindale ‘baffled’ by penalty decision

Livingston manager David Martindale speaking to Sky Sports News:

“My take from that game is why we never got a penalty on 20-21 minutes.

“See if we get a phone call on Monday morning apologising because they got it wrong when they’ve actually got the technology to look at a game when we could have went 2-1 up in that game, I’d be really, really disappointed.

“Every single camera angle that I’ve watched shows it’s a clear handball.

“I genuinely can’t give you an explanation. I thought there were big incidents in the game. I’m not going into them, but the penalty, I will go in to. I don’t understand how VAR doesn’t give us a penalty.

“I don’t want to end up with a three-match suspension for that, but I think they’ve got to understand what’s at stake for every manager, for every club. This is big, big moments in games that have big, big impacts on clubs’ futures, on managers’ futures.

“I don’t understand how we can get that wrong. I’m baffled how we can get it wrong. We’ve got the technology, it shows.

“Clearly it’s a penalty, but we don’t get the penalty. I think I’ll need to let you guys surmise what you think it is. If I tell you what I actually think it was, I’ll not be in the dugout next week.”

What’s coming up in the Scottish Premiership?

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