James Tavernier has admitted that Connor Goldson tipped him off to score the winner after the Rangers centre half spotted a weakness in the Livingston set up at a previous set piece. Joel Nouble had given David Martindale's men the dream start with a fifth minute goal and they led until the 72nd minute before Tavernier stepped up and scored a sublime free kick to give the Ibrox club all three points.
Scott Arfield bagged the equaliser and he along with fellow substitutes Malik Tillman and James Sands all made positive contributions as Gio van Bronckhorst 's decision making proved key to the hard-fought victory in West Lothian. Asked about his goal, Tavernier told Sky Sports: "Obviously Borna (Barisic) has tried the same down the keeper;s side because he gambled a little bit.
"Connor came up to us and said 'just do the same.' So I placed them in the view of the keeper and just put it in. I'm just delighted that it went in."
Tavernier scored 18 goals in 58 appearances for the Light Blues last season in quite a remarkable record for a defender. And despite getting up and running on the scoresheet in the season opener, the Rangers captain wasn't best pleased at the manner they lost the opening goal as he insisted his number one role is ensuring they keep clean sheets.
He said: "I set the target that I wanted a clean sheet so I'm disappointed about that. But obviously I try and help the team as much as I can with goals and assists."
Nouble outmuscled the Gers defence before lobbing the ball over Jon McLaughlin with debutant John Souttar having a shaky start to life at his new club. Tavernier added: "It just comes from a long ball you know no one competing and the guy runs off us and puts it in the back of the net. We make it hard for ourselves.
"So they go into a block and we've got to move the ball quicker. The second half we really came out with purpose and we showed great character."
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