Mark Warburton praises Rangers debutant Billy King
Sunday 31 January 2016 14:05, UK
Mark Warburton admits debut goal hero Billy King should never had been in the box to score Rangers' last-gasp winner against Falkirk.
King arrived on loan in the week from Hearts and made an instant impact when headed home a stoppage-time winner to secure a 1-0 victory and lift Rangers eight points clear at the top of the Scottish Championship.
The winger trained just once with his new team-mates before coming off the bench on the hour-mark and Warburton confessed the 21-year-old should have been on the touchline when James Tavernier swung in the cross for the clincher two minutes into injury time.
"Billy did well. I looked up looking for our wide right player but he wasn't there," said Warburton.
"Billy doesn't know how we shape up but all credit to him, it was great timing of the run and a good finish."
King is expected to return to Tynecastle in the summer but Warburton refused to rule out making a permanent move for the youngster.
"He has come in on loan," the manager said. "He has a contract with his parent club so we will just see how it goes."
King's energetic intervention was just what Rangers required as they toiled to break the Bairns down.
"We know as a squad we were below our best today," said Warburton. "It was a bit laboured and we lacked quality and self-belief, especially in the final third.
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"But we remained patient and that paid off with a great ball from Tav and a great run and finish from Billy.
"It's really pleasing. Sometimes you have to win ugly. I think it is one of those victories that wins you titles.
"Sometimes you have your flowing football and you walk off comfortable winners but today was a tough test. We had to be wary of them on the counter but we know we were sloppy today.
"It was important to get the three points and put a little daylight between us and third."
Falkirk now drop 10 points behind the leaders but disappointed Falkirk boss Peter Houston says he can take consolation from his side's progress.
"It's hard to take - it was cruel - but football can be like that," he said. "Maybe I'm biased but I felt their keeper had more saves to make than ours did.
"However, I think that shows you how far Falkirk have come over the last year that it takes a goal in the 90th minute at home for Rangers - a team who are putting four and five past sides every week - to beat us."
