Livingston vs Rangers. Scottish Premiership.
Tony Macaroni Arena.
Report as Max Stryjek's late save earns Livingston second point of season - and ends Rangers' winning start
Thursday 20 August 2020 18:10, UK
Rangers moved top of the Scottish Premiership but dropped their first points of the season as they were held to a 0-0 draw by a resolute Livingston side.
Borna Barisic forced a sensational save out of debutant home goalkeeper Max Stryjek in the final minutes from a curling free-kick, but the point was as much as Gary Holt's side deserved in a much-improved performance from their opening three games.
In a frantic ending, Ryan Kent then missed the target from a fine position in injury time, as Rangers finally stepped up their intensity that had been lacking for much of the game.
Livingston had appeared content with a point from the off - and failed to register a single shot before the break - but came closest when Craig Sibbald's spectacular effort from his own half nearly caught out visiting goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin, who recovered well to avoid being embarrassed from distance.
Unsurprisingly given their bright start, Rangers flew out of the blocks at the Tony Macaroni, but with Livingston defending their 18-yard box stoutly throughout, the visitors were mainly forced wide with James Tavernier and Barisic seeing a lot of the ball, and their bright start soon faded.
It took 32 minutes before the first sight of goal came about, with a rare moment of defensive fragility for Livingston stemming from Nicky Devlin's drive upfield. With the right-back out of position, Rangers broke through Morelos, who was well covered by Jon Guthrie and eventually forced to shoot from a wide angle, from which he could find only the side netting.
Within eight minutes of the second half starting, whatever Steven Gerrard had said to his side at the break looked like it was starting to bear fruit. Kent's smart run and drive finally provided the opening shot on target of the game, although a simple enough save for Stryjek.
Midway through the second period, Morelos should have broken the deadlock when Connor Goldson squared a corner into his path, but he slipped before shooting and allowed the hosts to clear. He would miss another chance minutes later when nodding Tavernier's cross over the bar from an angle.
The most impressive effort of the game would soon follow, with Sibbald taking matters into his own hands on the back of Livingston's lack of shots, and from nearly 60 yards came close to catching out McLaughlin with a wonderful attempted chip.
With five minutes remaining, Barisic must have thought he had given Rangers the lead when his curling free-kick from 20 yards beat the wall and looked ready to nestle in the top corner, before Stryjek clawed it away with a stunning reaction save for a corner.
If that was a moment of frustration for the left-back, it could have been all forgotten had Kent not missed the target altogether from a similar position in open play in added time.
When found by substitute Cedric Itten in space, he had time to pick out a spot but bent his effort a yard wide of the near post, leaving Livingston celebrating a hard-fought point, and Rangers cursing their lack of intensity in the opening hour.
Livingston manager Gary Holt: "The things that we can hang our hat on, in possession I thought we could've done a little bit more but I can't fault the players for tying things against an exceptional side.
"To keep a clean sheet, the boys that came in did their jobs to a man. That's all you can ask, and I think we got that today."
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard: "We're disappointed with the result. We came here to take maximum points, but in terms of the performance I think we did a lot things right. We dominated possession, got into the right areas, but lacked a bit of quality in the final third.
"They defended well, you have to give them a level of credit, but we threw everything at it. We put enough talent and good players on the pitch to find it, but we just couldn't find that bit of magic.
"We never tested their goalkeeper in the first 45 minutes enough, considering it was his debut, and we left it a little bit late."
No one made more blocks than Guthrie's three against Rangers - a demonstration of the tremendous defensive performance the Livingston centre-back, alongside his colleague Jack Fitzwater, put in to earn a clean sheet.
With plenty of crosses being played across their box over the 90 minutes, the defensive duo stood strong to keep Rangers at bay.
Livingston's next game sees them visiting Aberdeen next Sunday at 3pm. Rangers are back in action a day earlier, hosting Kilmarnock on Saturday at 3pm.
