Kilmarnock 0-1 Rangers: Steven Gerrard ‘won’t look at the league table’

Steven Gerrard “will not look at the league table” after his Rangers team beat Kilmarnock to move nine points away from second-ranked Celtic.

Gerrard’s team remains undefeated in the league and has lost just four points in its first 13 games.

“I will analyze our performance,” said the former Liverpool captain.

“I will not look at the league table. It is not the stage of the season to look at the league table.”

The league leaders started on the front foot at Rugby Park and Joe Aribo came close with a left foot strike that went a bit higher.

It was a Borna Barisic free kick that led to the penalty kick, with his shot coming off Goldson’s head, then Millen’s outstretched right hand.

He gave referee Andrew Dallas few options to mark the point and Tavernier swept the ball to Danny Rogers’ right for his 10th goal of the season.

Goldson headed a corner kick from Tavernier and Aribo had another deflected effort as the Rangers dominated the rest of the first half.

Kilmarnock’s only attempt was a long-distance free kick that Chris Burke fired into the arms of former Ibrox teammate McGregor.

Alan Power tried to turn the tide of the game early in the second half with a skillful juggling and volley after outscoring his teammates, but McGregor came back.

Ryan Kent tested Rogers and the keeper also denied Cedric Itten from close range after substitute Steven Davis sent a taunting cross.

Among those opportunities, Rory McKenzie threw a wide volley and a late free kick gave substitute Eamonn Brophy a shot opportunity, but McGregor went ahead.

It meant successive defeats for Kilmarnock, who remains sixth in the division.

Man of the match – Connor Goldson

What did we learn?

Lech Poznan had limited the Rangers to very few chances in the Polish team’s midweek Europa League defeat at Ibrox and Kilmarnock’s approach was similar, occupying central areas each time the visitors went ahead.

However, in the first half, that invited the Rangers to make full use of the flanks and limited the number of hosts when they advanced.

The Rangers played hard before and after the first goal, but couldn’t put a real distance between themselves and Kilmarnock.

Recent memories of rebounding from a goal down to beat the Rangers 2-1 gave Dyer’s team hope that the longer the score remained 1-0, but history would not repeat itself this time around.

What did they say?

Alex Dyer, Kilmarnock Manager: “We worked hard, especially in the second half. We show them a little respect because they are a good team and they are the best in the league.

“I don’t think we deserve to win, but we did enough to try to get a point. If we play like this, we will do well.”

Rangers coach Steven Gerrard: “We want to be aggressive. Players are buying it. We tweaked the way we play here a bit.

“We didn’t want to go overboard, we wanted to make Killie’s defenders as uncomfortable as possible by going a little more direct. The players have come out again and carried out the plan excellently.”

Whats Next?

Kilmarnock will visit St Johnstone on league-related matters on Friday (19:45 GMT). The day before, Rangers face Benfica in Portugal (17:55), then play the last Premiership game before the international break next Sunday at home against Hamilton Academical (15:00).