RANGERS WERE HELD to a 1-1 draw by Kilmarnock on Saturday and risk falling 10 points behind Glasgow rivals Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Alfredo Morelos rescued a point for his side at Ibrox as he cancelled out substitute Conor McAleny’s first-half goal but it was a frustrating day for Steven Gerrard’s team.
Gerrard made four changes to the side dumped out of the Scottish FA Cup by Aberdeen as Nikola Katic, Steven Davis, Andy Halliday and Lassana Coulibaly came in.
But Kilmarnock grabbed the lead when Gary Dicker spotted the Rangers defence sleeping as McAleny was allowed to drift into space.
The Irishman’s ball over the top was inch-perfect and the striker calmly strode past Allan McGregor to finish after the goalkeeper strangely wandered into no-man’s land.
Rangers tried to up the tempo but looked incapable of breaking down a packed defence and Killie almost struck again in first-half stoppage time.
Gerrard swapped Coulibaly for Jermain Defoe midway through the second half but it was Morelos who fired Rangers level seconds later as he collected James Tavernier’s pass and turned past Stuart Findlay before beating Daniel Bachmann at his near post.
But Rangers were unable to find a winner and if Celtic win at Dundee on Sunday, they will be 10 points clear at the top.
“The result’s frustrating,” said Gerrard. “Obviously we’ve conceded a very poor goal and that plays right into their hands because it gives them even more to hang on to.
“They’re coming here with a game plan to just try and take something off us and frustrate the support and conceding the goal certainly helped them an awful lot.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, Aberdeen drew 1-1 with Livingston, Hamilton beat Hearts 1-0 and Hibernian were 2-0 winners at home to Motherwell.
The game between St Johnstone and St Mirren was postponed.
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