Ryan Naderi’s second-half strike gave unconvincing Rangers a narrow 1-0 win in the first leg of their UEFA Conference League play-off tie against Czech outfit Jablonec at Ibrox.
Derek McInnes got his first win as Gers manager at the fifth time of asking with a 5-1 thumping of St Mirren on Sunday but there was regression in the goalless first half which brought boos at the interval whistle.
The Govan side pepped up after the break and Naderi opened the scoring from close range in the 50th minute but in the 78th minute substitute Cammy Devlin was sent off – minutes after coming off the bench – for a high tackle on Jriri Slama to leave Rangers to see out the game with 10 men.
Jablonec created little but will fancy turning the tie around in the return leg next week, following a weekend free of domestic football for Rangers to help preparations for a key European tie.
Gers fans, however, would have preferred that to have been in the Europa League, where they were dumped out of the qualifiers by Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok, before dropping down to European football’s third-tier competition for the first time.
Here is how the Rangers players rated out of 10 for their performance.
1. Ivor Pandur
Very little to do until Rangers went down to ten men. Clutched a long-range effort from Rusek towards the end. 6 | PA
2. Dujon Sterling
Defended pretty well and supported the attack. One nice bit of skill set up Naderi for a golden chance that Gassama missed. 7 | SNS Group
3. Emmanuel Fernandez
Booked 11 minutes for rash tackle on Jawo and was slack with some of his distribution in a fraught opening period that got the fans on his back. Improved a little as the game wore on but not the same player we saw perform to much higher level last term. 6 | SNS Group
4. Olwethu Makhanya
Settling into life at Rangers. The South African was the hosts' most assured defender on the night. 8 | SNS Group