We may never discover just how close Giovanni van Bronckhorst came to a messy end last night.
But if this much-needed win turns out to be the. beginning of another clean slate for the beleaguered Rangers boss, then he’ll owe a debt of gratitude to a man who has been the scapegoat of his side’s traumatic fall from grace. Ryan Kent has been the human collateral damage of the Ibrox implosion.
But last night, at a moment when his manager was most in need, Kent dug deeper than anyone else to grab this match by the scruff of the neck and turn two dropped points into a crucial, job-saving victory. It was his determination and delicate ball control which finally undid a stubborn Hearts rearguard effort, allowing Borna Barisic to set up Malik Tillman ’s second-half winner. And sparing his boss from further furious fall-out as he teeters on the brink. To tumble into the clutches of one crisis may be regarded as unfortunate. To stumble into two of them in little more than six months looks a lot like carelessness.
