Rangers

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Kilmarnock have signed back-up Rangers goalkeeper Kieran Wright on an emergency seven-day loan.

The 27-year-old's last first-team appearance came more than a year ago during a loan spell at Airdrieonians.

Kilmarnock goalkeeper Max Stryjek made his comeback from heart surgery in last weekend's defeat at Aberdeen where Kelle Roos was on the visitors' bench.

At his media conference on Thursday, manager Neil McCann spoke of injury concerns but would not name players.

Second-bottom Kilmarnock host Dundee United on Saturday.

"The club thanks Rangers for their co-operation in allowing the deal to happen smoothly and swiftly," Killie said.

Charlotte Cohen
BBC Sport Scotland

After last weekend's defeat to Motherwell, Rangers surely cannot afford to lose against Hearts on Monday evening if they want to keep their title chances alive.

Having mounted a comeback from two down in their previous outing to thump Falkirk 6-3, Danny Rohl's side were unable to deliver a similar escape act against the Steelmen, going down 3-2 and slipping to third.

The first of four remaining games comes at Tynecastle. Win and they'll move within a point of Hearts. But lose and the deficit will stretch to a chasm of seven.

Could Youssef Chermiti be the man to make the difference for Rangers?

Since arriving from Everton for £8m last summer the 21-year-old - who has scored 12 goals in 26 Premiership appearances - has performed only in flashes and faced criticism for his missed chances.

He has not struggled against Hearts though. In fact, one third of Chermiti's Premiership goals have come against Derek McInnes' men.

In two defeats and one win Rangers have netted five against Hearts this season - and Chermiti has scored four of them, with the other a Michael Steinwender own goal.

The Portuguese striker's hat-trick in the 4-2 Ibrox victory over Hearts in February was a glimpse of the lethal finishing and dynamic forward play he has shown too infrequently.

Across his three games against Hearts this season Chermiti has had eight shots - the most of any Rangers player and the same number as opposing striker Lawrence Shankland in one fewer meeting.

Chermiti has scored four of his five big chances against the Tynecastle club and is averaging a goal every 39.5 minutes.

He has vastly outperformed his xG (expected goals) of 1.76 across the three games.

If Rangers are to take all three points from Tynecastle on Monday, Chermiti could be the difference.

• Rangers suffered their first defeat in 17 league games last time out against Motherwell (W12 D4) though haven't lost back-to-back matches in the Scottish Premiership since March 2018 under Graeme Murty.

• Hearts have won four of their six league games against Celtic and Rangers this season (D1 L1); the only side ever to win five league games against the two Old Firm clubs in a single campaign are Aberdeen, who have done so on three occasions: 1977-78, 1979-80 and 1982-83, all under Alex Ferguson.

• Rangers have lost two of their three league meetings with Hearts this season; only in 1985-86 have they ever been beaten three times by the Gorgie side in a single league campaign.

• Hearts have won their past five home league games, last enjoying a longer winning run at Tynecastle in the top flight from August to December 2005 (eight in a row).

• One third of Youssef Chermiti's Premiership goals have come against Hearts (four of 12). The last Rangers player to score five league goals against a single opponent in a season was Fashion Sakala versus Motherwell in 2021-22, while the last player for any club to score five in a Scottish Premiership season against Hearts was Scott Sinclair in 2016-17.

Rangers legend Ally McCoist has urged his former club to sign Leeds United striker Joel Piroe this summer. (Daily Record), external

Former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson says he will be "absolutely raging" if fans of the Ibrox club are barred from Celtic Park for next month's Old Firm clash. (Scottish Sun), external

Read Thursday's Scottish football gossip

Nick McPheat
BBC Sport Scotland

Following a damaging home defeat to Motherwell, Danny Rohl has plenty to ponder with Rangers' Scottish Premiership title hopes hanging by a thread.

A trip to face league leaders Hearts is being billed as a must-win fixture for the Ibrox side, who sit four points off the summit with four games remaining.

But how should the German head coach approach the Tynecastle showdown?

Having seemingly settled on a 4-2-2-2 shape, Sunday's loss to Jens Berthel Askou's side has thrown Rohl's preferred system into question.

In a sensational first-half performance from the Steelmen, Rangers were toyed with and were fortunate to head into the interval just two goals down.

Motherwell were able to outnumber Rohl's midfield and cut through the heart of his team, with Emmanuel Longelo and Tawanda Maswanhise deployed as wide forwards to pin back the home side's full-backs.

Although Rangers were ultimately undone late on, a half-time switch to a 4-3-3 allowed them to be more compact in central areas, while the introduction of Mikey Moore gave them far more threat in attack.

The Tottenham youngster's minutes have been carefully managed lately following fitness issues, but fans of the Ibrox club will be desperate to see the teenager start at Tynecastle.

Rohl's 4-2-2-2 system worked well for Rangers in their 4-2 win over Hearts in February, but that was with striker Ryan Naderi fit to partner Youssef Chermiti and left-back Tuur Rommens available.

The fitness of the duo who missed Sunday's loss could determine Rohl's decision-making, with his team likely needing a victory against a side who remain unbeaten at home in the league this season to thrust themselves back into contention.

"We have to just look at the next game - Sunday has passed," Rangers podcaster Scott Cameron said on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"It was disappointing. It was another Jekyll and Hyde Rangers performance, but we go to Tynecastle on Monday and we can win at Tynecastle.

"Admittedly, Hearts have got a fantastic home record, but I think the approach has to be to go out and win the game and then take it from there.

"We've blinked first, but we have to bounce back with three points."

Alasdair Lamont
BBC Sport Scotland Commentator

Prior to Rangers' game against Motherwell on Sunday, Danny Rohl said he didn't want to focus on "negative" thoughts about the manner in which his side started the previous game against Falkirk.

A couple of hours later, he admitted they had paid the price for a similar first-half display against Motherwell and this time it proved hugely costly, dealing a massive blow to their title prospects.

Jens Berthel Askou's side were brilliant, particularly in that first period, but that should not have come as a surprise to Rohl and Rangers and does not excuse how flat they were and seemingly incapable of counteracting the visitors' slick, pacy play.

Now Rangers require favours from others and certainly cannot afford to lose again. They probably need to go to Tynecastle and win and then avoid defeat at Celtic Park, both of which will be extremely tough, but not impossible.

Celtic have to go to Easter Road before that and both Rangers and Hearts will hope Hibs can take something from that game, and Hearts and Celtic still have to go to Fir Park again, so all is not lost for Rangers.

But Rangers can't afford to start games the way they did against Falkirk and though they could ultimately have won against Motherwell as well, despite that dreadful first half, they can have no real complaints about the outcome having given themselves so much to do.

The half-time changes definitely made a difference, with Mohamed Diomande putting in his best performance since coming on at Celtic Park to turn that game in Rangers' favour.

But the key introduction was that of Mikey Moore, albeit he should have scored. That aside, he once again showed how important he is to the team.

He is clearly not 100% fit, as Rohl alluded to, but if Rangers can't get him ready to start the upcoming fixtures against Hearts and Celtic, their hopes of getting the results they need will be diminished.

Monday is massive for both sides. It's going to be another fascinating weekend in the title race.

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Tottenham Hotspur are weighing up a move for Rangers captain James Tavernier in the event they are relegated to the Championship. (TeamTalk), external

Jamie Currie
Fan writer

After the win at Falkirk, I warned a first 25 minutes like that against Motherwell would prove to be fatal.

Yet here we are. Going two down was always a big ask against a team that, in no uncertain terms, gave us a chasing in the first half.

The change in shape - from 4-2-2-2 to 4-2-3-1 - and three half-time subs helped us get a foothold in the game and retrieve the two goals.

Chances were spurned and then came the naivety - letting Stephen O'Donnell run and run without a challenge and losing the late goal was infuriating.

I must admit one change I did find crazy was Connor Barron on for Thelo Aasgaard when we have Oliver Antman and Andreas Skov Olsen sitting on their behinds.

The result is a killer. Any notion of a title win is fanciful at this stage. We now have to win four from four and hope for favours.

But going on Monday to face a Hearts team that are still unbeaten in the league at home all season now seems such a massive ask.

It was bad enough not winning against Motherwell, but to lose it is utterly deflating as a supporter and I can only imagine the psychological damage it has done to this group of players.

'Keep believing' and such platitudes are great, but ultimately they mean little when you shoot yourself in the foot with a double-barreled shotgun.

There have been so many games we've thrown away this season: Dundee at home, Motherwell three times, and that's before you talk about Livingston and the collapse against Celtic.

It feels done, it probably is done, and if we don't finish third I'll be surprised.

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John Beaton has been confirmed as the referee for the huge meeting of title rivals Hearts and Rangers at Tynecastle on Monday.

Andrew Dallas will be on VAR duties while Beaton is assisted by David McGeachie and Jonathan Bell.

Hearts remain unbeaten at Tynecastle in the Premiership this season and a home victory would put them seven points clear of Rangers with three games remaining.

Beaton has presided over four Hearts games this term - none of which Derek McInnes' side have won. Three were draws - against Motherwell, Dundee United and Kilmarnock - plus a 3-2 derby defeat at Easter Road.

This will also be Beaton's fifth match in charge of Rangers, with the Ibrox side having won three and drawn one.

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Will the latest Old Firm ticket row signal the end of away allocations in the fixture?

The SPFL are this week due to decide whether to uphold Celtic's refusal to give Rangers tickets for the derby at Parkhead on 10 May unless the Union Bears ultras group is excluded.

The row comes in the aftermath of disorder at the Scottish Cup quarter-final on 8 March when spectators from both clubs entered the pitch after Celtic won on penalties at Ibrox.

It is an issue "so toxic" that the league sub-committee responsible for the adjudication should be "wearing hazmat suits", says The Herald football writer Stephen McGowan.

Speaking on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast, he added: "You fear for away allocations as we know them at the moment, I think they'll do well to survive us.

"The SFA are having an independent inquiry at the moment where they will try and pin exactly where responsibility should be attributed for what happened on 8 March.

"They will make their findings known probably in the summer, the problem is they've got a game at Parkhead to get to before then on 10 May, and basically this comes down to a dispute between the two teams on how you should handle the Ultra problem.

"Celtic think, as they've shown - they banned the Green Brigade for five months - it should be collective punishment, you should hit them en masse. Rangers take the view it should be more of an individual thing. Celtic clearly think Rangers have been a bit weak on this issue.

"Rangers say no, they can't lay down the law to us on who we can sell tickets to. It's the eternal story of football in Glasgow, it's two bitter rivals who will not yield to one another.

"It's going to be to some poor souls on the SPFL board to decide who's right and who gets their way over this.

"I think if the SPFL uphold this Celtic stance then Rangers absolutely will reciprocate and that would be regrettable.

"But equally if we see that the police are struggling to deal with large-scale allocations, it might be unavoidable in the long term, it might well be the way we have to go just to try and kind of cool minds and bring some sanity back to the situation."

Rangers captain James Tavernier is likely to snub transfer interest from English clubs in favour of a move to Saudi Arabia this summer. (Football Insider), external

Ibrox legend Kris Boyd has suggested some Rangers players are going missing as the Scottish Premiership title race heats up. (Glasgow Times), external

Former Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst - currently Arne Slot's assistant at Liverpool - is a candidate to become Feyenoord's technical director. (Daily Mail), external

Scott Parker's future as Burnley manager is in the balance following the club's Premier League relegation and former Rangers and Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard, 45, could be in contention to replace the 45-year-old. (Talksport), external

Gerrard, who left Saudi Arabia's Al-Ettifaq by mutual constent after 18 months in charge in 2025, is also being targeted by Championship side Bristol City. (Independent), external

Leon King has not ruled out staying at Ayr United beyond his current loan spell, with the on-loan Rangers defender out of contract at Ibrox at the end of the season. (Herald), external

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Rangers winger Mikey Moore insists they are not out of the title race despite Sunday's 3-2 home defeat by Motherwell.

The result leaves Rangers four points behind Hearts and one behind Celtic, who they visit in their next two matches.

"Obviously it was massively disappointing because we didn't start the game well enough," Moore said.

"We showed good character to come back and I genuinely thought we had a good chance of going on to win the game, but it obviously wasn't meant to be.

"But now we need to bounce back from that and just show a real good mentality. We're calm.

"But now we know that it's all or nothing really, so we need to be at it from the very first minute."

Moore acknowledged that Rangers will need to win all four of their remaining league matches, but is not giving up hope.

"I don't think it's an impossible task," he said. "If we show the best versions of ourselves, we have more than enough to win every game left.

"There's only one focus. We're not thinking about a negative side of it now, because you can't dwell on it. So there's full positivity in the group."

Moore's parent club Tottenham are at risk of relegation from the Premier League and there is some uncertainty over where he will be playing next season.

"I want to keep playing games," he said. "I want to know that every week I've got a chance of playing.

"I'm not going to rush into playing somewhere higher than I can play, where I'm going to maybe sit on the bench and not get as many minutes. I want to keep building on what I've built this year.

"I've loved every second of my time here. And if it was the right thing for me and my career to stay here, then 100%, I'd love it.

"But it's not just down to me. I don't just make the decision. We'll have chats and wherever that will take me in the summer, it will hopefully be best for my career."

ARE HEARTS DESTINED TO WIN THE TITLE? 🏆

It was a seismic weekend in the hunt for the Scottish Premiership crown. Are you rejoicing, are you quietly optimistic, or are you chucking it?

Join the debate with Ray Bradshaw at 18:00 BST TONIGHT on the BBC Sport Scottish Football YouTube channel, external to give us your views in the chat. The show is fully interactive, so have your say.

Remember to like and subscribe to not miss it!

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Dundee's Luke Graham, Arbroath's Findlay Marshall, Rangers' on-loan Tottenham winger Mikey Moore and Falkirk's Barney Stewart have been nominated for the SPFL young player of the year award.

Centre-back Graham has been a key figure for Dundee in their fight against relegation and has also chipped in with three goals in all competitions.

Moore has scored six goals and contributed two assists in an impressive campaign at Ibrox, while Stewart has been prolific all season - scoring six in 11 Championship matches on loan at Dunfermline before finding the back of the net eight times for Falkirk in the top flight.

Midfielder Marshall - who is on loan from Aberdeen - has 12 goals in 35 games in the Championship as Arbroath chase promotion.

Former Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson believes Danny Rohl's team made it too easy for Motherwell to play on the break as the Steelmen won 3-2 at Ibrox on Sunday.

Motherwell went 2-0 up thanks to goals from Lukas Fadinger and Emmanuel Longelo, before Rangers hit back through Youssef Chermiti and Nicolas Raskin.

However, Longelo's deflected strike in the 90th minute won it for Motherwell and put a large dent in Rangers' title aspirations.

"How Motherwell countered on Rangers - it was so easy," Thomson said on Sportscene.

"The biggest issue for Rangers was how passive they were out of possession.

"Motherwell were excellent on the day and you could tell the atmosphere changed in the stadium."

We asked for your views after Rangers suffered a damaging Scottish Premiership defeat to Motherwell at Ibrox.

Here's what some of you had to say:

Brian: Five cup finals left, the manager keeps saying. With this display, it will be another four finals lost. The wrong team selection, the wrong formation and the wrong approach. You would think Rangers had already won the league, the way they played against Motherwell.

David: Worst performance since Danny Rohl took over. If we lose to Hearts at Tynecastle next week, the league is over. On the other hand, if we beat them, it's all to play for again.

Lex: Rohl says "it's not over". But another defeat against Hearts will condemn Rangers to third place and the Conference League qualifiers. This Rangers set-up believes its own hype but can't conceal its fundamental deficiencies.

Willie: A season of turmoil. We've ridden high on belief and (false) confidence in what Rohl has achieved. The Motherwell result is a dose of reality that proves we are not yet worthy of being champions. Hearts probably deserve the title more than any of us. Keeping the faith, though.

Sally: Unless Rangers can beat Hearts, the season is over. Thelo Aasgaard, Jayden Meghoma and Djeidi Gassama were not at the races. I seriously question the drive and desire of some of these players. Mikey Moore, Mohamed Diomande, Connor Barron and Tuur Rommens need to play in the remaining fixtures.

Jimmy: Once again, they let everyone down. It was in our own hands - how many chances do these players need? That's two games in a row we've given the opposition a two-goal start. I think our luck has finally run out. Gutted. Our defence has once again let us down.

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl believes his side could have had a penalty for Lukas Fadinger's first-half challenge on Djeidi Gassama in Motherwell's 3-2 win at Ibrox on Sunday. (Sun), external

Monday's Scottish gossip

Motherwell's Emmanuel Longelo scored a stunning 90th-minute winner to dent Rangers' Scottish Premiership title hopes in a fabulous, five-goal epic at Ibrox.

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