Rangers reaction: Colak in quickest run to top flight double figures; Tavernier gone for 55; player ratings

Two significant tallies were reached on Saturday as Rangers warmed up for the midweek Champions League hosting of Liverpool with a comfortable 4-0 success at home to St Mirren.

The penalty total of Rangers James Tavernier reached a figure of special resonance for the club's supporters with the award that he converted at the weekend. (Photo by Alan Harvey/SNS Group)

Antonio Colak in quickest run to top-fight double figures

The two goals bagged by Antonio Colak on Saturday made for his third such haul in as many cinch Premiership games. In taking the Croatian on to the 10 mark for league strikes, the 29-year-old has reached double-figures on this measure in the fewest number of top flight matches since Rangers were promoted to the set-up at the end of 2015-16.

The St Mirren encounter was Rangers’ 10th league outing this season, Colak featuring in only nine of these. For comparison, it wasn’t until the Ibrox club’s 25th cinch Premiership encounter last season - in February - that Alfredo Morelos hit the 10 league goal total. Colak shares the swiftest league 10 with Jermain Defoe. In 2019-20 the Englishman also made it to double-figures in the 10th game, again having only taken to the field in nine of these. To find a more rapid 10-goal haul in the league for a Rangers player, you require to go back to Martyn Waghorn. He plundered 11 strikes inside eight games in the 2015-16 campaign…but Rangers were then operating in the Championship.

James Tavernier gone for 55

A milestone was racked up by Rangers captain James Tavernier at the weekend when he stepped up to tuck away another penalty in confident fashion. The spot-kick was the 55th the right-back has taken in Ibrox colours…a storied figure for the club faithful. Of that total, his latest marked his 45th success from 12 yards since he arrived in Scotland in the summer of 2015. Information on penalty totals is sketchy for the more distant past but Tavernier would appear to have the best such record since Rangers’ 1950s ‘penalty king’ Johnny Hubbard, who netted 65 from 68 attempts across his entire career.

Rangers ratings: McGregor 9; Tavernier 7, Davies 7 (King 63, 5), Goldson 7, Barisic 7 (Yilmaz 78, 3); Jack 6 (Kamara 83, 2), Lunstram 7; Sakala 7, Arfield 6, Matondo (Kent 63, 4) 6; Colak 8 (Morelos 78, 5).

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