Kilmarnock 1 Rangers 0: Instant reaction to another famous scalp

Marley Watkins scored late to seal another huge victory against the Ibrox side in Ayrshire.

Marley Watkins left it late to record another famous Kilmarnock win over Rangers at Rugby Park.

As the game looked to be petering out for a hard-fought stalemate, the Welshman provided the goods with a calm finish past Jack Butland.

Here’s our instant reaction to the burning issues…

Give him the ball and he’ll score

As the song goes! Marley Watkins came up with the big moment as he has done so many times for this team.

A wonderful piece of movement by the striker allowed him to hold off the defender before managing to pick his spot and slot under the onrushing Jack Butland.

The composure was tremendous and was just the latest example of his importance to Derek McInnes’ side.

He should’ve done much better with a chance after only two minutes after fantastic perseverance by Kyle Vassell, but his tame effort was blocked by John Souttar.

Watkins more than made up for that with his effort for the goal, as he sent the home crowd into raptures.

Credit must also go to substitute David Watson – who was quite literally only just on the park – for clipping the ball into the box for the striker to latch onto.

A massive three points for the Killie boys, who made it back-to-back wins and went level on nine points with Dundee in the top six.

Defensive solidity returns

Even if Rangers did manage to sneak one to take something from the game, this subheading would remain. It was a much sounder showing from the whole backline.

And boy was it needed. While the team has scored eight in the three games previous to today, conceding seven in the same breath wasn’t good enough.

Of course, Rangers had their moments as you’d fully expect, but they were few and far between in what can only be regarded as a quiet afternoon for Killie.

This was down to a combination of their poor performance in an attacking sense, but also from Robbie Deas, Stuart Findlay, Corrie Ndaba and the likes shutting them out.

It was a collective effort, with Liam Donnelly protecting them well too. Deas was particularly outstanding, making numerous vital interventions – most notably to stop a four on one situation in the first half in favour of the visitors.

Not giving up easy opportunities was crucial in Killie putting a consistent run together last season, with European football the reward.

This was the first the backline has looked close to replicating that sort of brilliant form this season, so here’s hoping for much more of the same moving forward.