RANGERS continued their pre-season preparations with a useful exercise at Tranmere Rovers this afternoon, albeit the Light Blues were defeated 1-0.
Dominant throughout and having created chances aplenty, one of the home side’s few forays forward in the entire match ended with Morris netting a stunning 25-yard drive in the first half.
Off the back of Monday’s match at Partick Thistle, this was an opportunity for Steven Gerrard’s side to crank their level up a little.
And early on, that opportunity was taken by the starting XI, with Gers basically having all the ball, and with that, fashioning some decent openings.
Both Scott Wright and Ianis Hagi flashed efforts wide on the volley from inside the area, while Jermain Defoe chipped one over and Kemar Roofe couldn’t quite turn in a wicked James Tavernier cross from the right.
An almighty scramble then followed for Gers – Defoe fed Wright who was denied by goalkeeper Joe Murphy. The ball rebounded for Defoe who saw his header blocked on the line before Roofe fired the second rebound into the Kop behind the goal.
The home side had seldom crossed the halfway line in the first half but it was they who took the lead on 35 minutes – Kieron Morris firing a fearsome drive beyond Allan McGregor from 25-yards.
Jermain Defoe then had another effort, firing another excellent Tavernier cross wide at the back post, but it was the home side who went in ahead at the interval.
Into the second half, and similarly to Monday, boss Gerrard named 10 changes at the break, but the flow of the game remained the same, with the visitors having pretty much all of the ball and creating a number of chances.
Ryan Kent fired a Calvin Bassey cross wide first of all, and then Cedric Itten brought a smart stop out of Murphy with a decent strike from the edge of the box following fine work from Joe Aribo.
Itten then had another opening, being fed by Jordan Jones from the right but under good pressure from Peter Clarke, he couldn’t get an effort on target.
Kent had a 25-yard free-kick deflected wide, while Lewis Mayo was denied by a cluster of bodies on the Tranmere goalline as again Aribo was the provider.
Kent then tested Murphy from distance with the goalkeeper holding on, and then he made a spectacular save in injury time from a Joe Aribo header to prevent him levelling matters.
Gers now have another week of training to look forward to and the chance to step things up further, ahead of Arsenal visiting Ibrox next Saturday.
RANGERS FIRST-HALF XI: McGregor, Tavernier, Lundstram, Simpson, Goldson, Hagi, Defoe, Davis, Middleton, Wright, Roofe.
RANGERS SECOND-HALF XI: McGregor (McCrorie, 67), Bassey, Edmundson, Itten, Kent, Mayo, Aribo, Kelly, Barker, Jones, Balogun.
SUBS NOT USED: Maxwell, Williamson.
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