Rangers go into new season on back of friendly defeats

Rangers went down 3-1 to Linlithgow at Duncansfield last Wednesday night and were then beaten 4-2 at the Ashfield Peugeot Stadium on Saturday.

Kilsyth rarely looked like coming out on top in either game, although several players were unavailable.

Against Linlithgow they held their own for most of the first half but rarely troubled the Linlithgow defence.

The visitors also looked a bit sluggish but made quite a few chances with Tommy Coyne opening the scoring in 25 minutes.

The second half was mostly one way traffic towards the Rangers goal but it took two penalty kicks, both converted by Coyne, to put the game out of reach for Rangers who managed a late consolation through Franny Kelly.

It was a similar story at Ashfield with Kilsyth enjoying plenty of outfield possession but suffering from a great lack of firepower up front.

The defence looked none too steady at times either, although both Chris Reid and David Waters were unavailable.

The first half was fairly even until just before half-time when Ashfield netted twice within five minutes to go in two up, Paddy Cullen and Paul Maxwell getting the goals for the Central Second Division side.

A few changes were made at half-time, but there was little improvement and Ashfield went three up.

They were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box and Michael Giblin’s strike was allowed to go straight through the defensive wall and into the net.

The final quarter of an hour at last brought some improvement for the visitors who pulled back two goals within five minutes from Alan McFadden and Scoot Davidson to reduce the deficit to 3-2.

But in the final minute Ashfield confirmed their superiority with a fourth goal from Stevie Dymock, the result of very poor defending from Kilsyth at a corner kick.