Rangers come from behind to beat ten-man Kilmarnock 3-2 in Premiership clash

Rangers have come back from a goal down to beat ten-man Kilmarnock 3-2 at Rugby Park in the Premiership.

Alfredo Morelos was the hero with two goals and an assist for the Ibrox side but they had it to do it the hard way again after being given a mountain to climb in the game’s opening stages.

But like the semi-final against Aberdeen at the weekend, and several other games since the mid-season break, they managed to grind out a victory and keep up Michael Beale’s unbeaten run as manager against a Killie side who played the last half-hour with ten men.

That’s eight without defeat for the Rangers boss, with seven wins and a draw, despite going behind in no fewer than five occasions.

It was Chris Stokes who scored the opening goal when he rose up to head a corner past Jon McLaughlin who was preferred to Allan McGregor in the Rangers goals.

Kilmarnock had the best of the opening stages but Rangers weathered the early storm and got themselves level on the 25th minute.

Morelos was the scorer as he got the visitors back in the game mid-way through the first half.

The game remained level at half-time with Rangers continuing the theme of Beale’s early tenure by again being left needing a big second half performance.

And it was only five minutes old when Ryan Kent stepped up to the plate to fire them ahead after a cut back from Morelos on the 50th minute mark.

The home side were then reduced to ten-men when Danny Armstrong was sent off for a second bookable offence on the hour mark.

Morelos then sealed the three points with his second and Rangers’ third with 15 minutes to go.

But Joe Wright pulled one back with five minutes of normal time remaining to make it a tense finish for the away support.

And just as the ref signalled for three minutes added on former Rangers player Kyle Lafferty came close to equalising but his shot was well saved by McLaughlin in the last minute of the 90.