Livingston v Rangers: Aarons scores injury-time winner to secure first victory of Premiership campaign

Rangers left it late to beat Livingston and secure their first victory of the Premiership season.

Max Aarons scored deep into injury time as Russell Martin’s men won 2-1 at Almondvale on Sunday.

An earlier James Tavernier strike was cancelled out by a Mo Sylla’s second-half header.

But just as it looked as though David Martindale’s side had done enough to earn a point, the on-loan Bournemouth defender struck on the 95th minute.

Livingston were quick off the mark and had a few early efforts with Stevie May, Andy Winter, and Lewis Smith all having attempts on goal in the first ten minutes.

However, Rangers grew into the game, and Bojan Miovski had a great chance to open the scoring when he was put through on goal, but he failed to hit the target with his shot drifting over the bar.

Tavernier put the visitors ahead with an acrobatic finish in the first half.

Djeidi Gassama’s cross was met by Oliver Antman, who cut it back across the goal for the captain to finish with a scissor kick to make it 1-0 on the 23rd minute.

The away side had a chance to double their lead just minutes later when the referee pointed to the spot after Nicolas Raskin was pulled down inside the box.

Tavernier stepped up but his effort was saved by the feet of Jerome Prior.

Livi had Prior to thank for keeping the scoreline down again soon after when he made another good save to deny John Souttar.

Rangers did have the ball in the net again before half-time, but Derek Cornelius had his goal ruled out after a VAR check found a handball in the build up and the away side remained just one goal ahead going into the break.

Jack Butland was called into action in the second-half and he pulled off a great save to keep a Stevie May strike out.

But Livi had their equaliser soon after when Sylla headed home from a corner to make it 1-1 going into the last 20 minutes.

Eight minutes were added on at the end as Rangers threw everything at the hosts, and they finally got their reward when Aarons put it past Prior and into the net to secure a 2-1 win.

The victory means Rangers jump up to eighth in the table with seven points from their first six games.