Rangers beat Livingston at Almondvale as Clement continues winning start

Philippe Clement has continued his perfect domestic start as Rangers manager with victory over Livingston at Almondvale.

Cyriel Dessers and James Tavernier, who missed a penalty in the first half before scoring from the spot in the second, were both on target.

Rangers also had two goals disallowed in what was a pretty comfortable afternoon in West Lothian.

The 2-0 wins means they cut the gap at the top of the table to five points for at least a couple of hours, with Celtic playing Aberdeen later on Sunday.

Livingston on the other hand remain routed to the bottom of the pile behind Ross County on goal-difference.

Clement has now won five out of five domestic fixtures since replacing Michael Beale last month, with four in the league and one in the cup.

He is also undefeated in seven games in all competitions with one win and a draw from his two European games so far.

Dessers returned to the starting line-up in the place of Danilo and he had a chance to give Rangers an early lead but his effort was well saved by Shamal George.

The visitors did have the ball in the net a few minutes later when Connor Goldson turned home from close-range, but the goal was ruled out for offside.

It was all Rangers in the early stages and they were awarded a penalty when McCausland was tripped in the box by George.

Captain James Tavernier, who is usually deadly from the spot, stepped up, but he blasted his penalty wide of the post.

Just as it looked as though it could be ‘one of those days’ for Clement’s side, the deadlock was broken when Dessers raced on to a through ball from Tom Lawrence and put it past George to make it 1-0.

Ross McCausland was making his first Rangers start and he also had the ball in the net in the first-half, but his strike was ruled out for a push by Sima in the build up to the goal.

Clement’s side again had most of the possession in the second-half without creating as many clear cut chances.

Lundstram and Sima both came close to doubling the lead as the game faced several stoppages with Goldson and Montano both receiving treatment following a clash of heads.

Rangers were awarded another penalty after Devlin handled the ball in the box with just over 15 minutes remaining.

Tavernier was handed another opportunity from the spot and this time he made no mistake as he sent George the wrong way to make it 2-0.