Danny Rohl perplexed by Rangers boos as Kilmarnock 'cannot compute' James Tavernier red card let-off

Goals from James Tavernier, Bojan Miovski, Andreas Skov Olsen, Oliver Antman and Mikey Moore helped the Ibrox side ease into second place in the Premiership table, just three points behind leaders, Hearts.

Rangers, though, struggled for long spells against a Kilmarnock side that had Dominic Thompson sent off after just three minutes, with the game remaining in the balance until Miovski netted their second goal after 58 minutes.

The fans were not slow to show their frustration during the first half and booed the team off at half-time. And Rohl revealed that caught him off guard, as he reminded the support of how far the team has come since his appointment in October when they were 13 points behind.

The manager said: “Yeah, to be honest with you, I couldn't understand this [the frustration]. I must say this. I love our fans, really, but today I was really surprised. I think in the last couple of weeks we spoke about the “we”. We want to be together and we need the crowd.

“We led from very early in the first half so I was really surprised [at the reaction]. But it's my job then to give my players the right feeling for this game, the right instruction.

“I'm very proud of my group at the moment. It's not about me. It’s all about my group because they deserve a lot of credit for what they did. In some moments we forget very soon and very quickly which position we were in 10 weeks ago. And it was not me, it was my group who came from a position when we were behind, from 13 points down to three points. Maybe this deserves sometimes a little bit of positive energy.

“I learned a lot in the last three months about the club, about the demands. In some moments I can understand, in some moments I can't agree. But let's do it together as “we”. It’s much, much more fun this way and you can enjoy it.. Let's go in one direction together until the end. And if we do this then maybe we will have a great finish.”

Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann was proud of his team for the way they pushed Rangers for the opening hour with just 10 men.

And he also admitted he was surprised that Tavernier wasn’t sent off for catching Tyler John-Jules when the defender was the final man in the Rangers defence. Referee David Dickinson didn’t award a foul at the time and VAR didn’t intervene.

McCann said: “What I’m really angry about is that I think James Tavernier should be sent off. There is no reason for Ty to go down. It’s a clear push from behind. Ty was in with the ball over the top. The explanation I got was there wasn’t enough contact. So, there was contact, but not enough. That doesn’t compute for me.”