Tom Lawrence’s moment of magic gave a disjointed Rangers side a 1-0 Scottish Premiership win against Hibernian at Ibrox.
The Govan stadium was fully opened for the first time since the completion of the Copland Stand refurbishment but there was an inertia about the home side until the Gers midfielder broke the deadlock in the 34th minute with a wonderful curling finish.
The Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland saved a Mykola Kukharevych penalty just before the break but even that failed to fire up Philippe Clement’s team, who looked a shadow of the side that convincingly beat Malmö 2-0 in the Europa League opener on Thursday night.
Nevertheless, despite a lacklustre performance, Rangers made it four wins in a row since the 3-0 defeat by Celtic at Parkhead at the start of the month to move five points behind their Old Firm rivals and Aberdeen at the top of the table.
Unsurprisingly, after their European exertions, Clement rotated his squad. The left-back Jefté returned from suspension with the midfielder Nico Raskin and the winger Ross McCausland starting along with the striker Hamza Igamane, who missed the match in Sweden on Thursday because of passport problems.
David Gray, whose Hibs side were unbeaten in three games, gave the winger Junior Hoilett his first start, with Lewis Miller in at full-back and Josh Campbell back in the side.
Hibs had the first real chances, Hoilett clearing the bar with an effort from inside the box before a drive from the midfielder Kwon Hyeok-kyu was blocked by the Gers defender John Souttar, but it was a mostly dull start to proceedings.
However, just after the half-hour Lawrence took a McCausland pass and curled the ball high into the net from the edge of the box with perfect execution. The offside flag went up to deflate the home supporters, only for VAR to eventually confirm that the goal was good.
It was Lawrence’s third goal of the season – matching his tally from last season – and it lifted the crowd, if only momentarily.
Igamane flashed a shot over the bar and Kwon came close with a drive from outside the box which was touched behind by Butland. From the resultant corner there was a VAR check for a Hibs penalty when Souttar handled Kukharevych’s shot.
The referee Nick Walsh checked his pitchside monitor and pointed to the spot, with cheers ringing out when Butland dived to his right to save from the Hibs attacker.
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McCausland and Raskin made way for Kieran Dowell and Nedim Bajrami for the start of the second half and then Cyriel Dessers took over from Igamane, who had been quiet, but it was the visitors who took a grip of the game.
Clement appeared to react to groans from the Rangers fans after Vaclav Cerny passed the ball backwards rather than thrusting towards the Hibs goal and spoke at length with the winger after replacing him with Dujon Sterling moments later.
Dwight Gayle came on to make his debut for the visitors, taking over from Hoilett, with Élie Youan coming on for Kukharevych.
Rangers simply could not get into top gear, to the increasing frustration of the home support.
Dessers missed a good chance to double the lead in the 81st minute when he headed a cross from his fellow substitute Bajrami straight at the goalkeeper Josef Bursik, before the Hibs substitute Gayle headed past the post from close range.
The Rangers defender Robin Pröpper then headed high over the bar with three minutes remaining, leaving the home side to nervously defend their slender lead until the final whistle.