Scottish Premiership Update - Rangers Drop Points on Opening Weekend
Kai Watson 
The Scottish Premiership finally started back this weekend after what seemed like a longer summer break than usual. This has been written before the Hearts vs Aberdeen game on Monday evening, which should be a cracker!
Despite it being the opening weekend there were plenty of talking points to be had, comebacks, red cards, VAR.
And it was a winning weekend for the betting sites, as Rangers dropped points on the opening day, as seems customary now.
Here at Free Bets, Kai Watson takes a look back at the opening weekend of action in the top-tier of Scottish football.
Kilmarnock 2-2 Livingston
Saturday kicked off with only one 3pm game, which was highly unusual but it occurred at Rugby Park as Livingston were the visitors.
It’s fair to say Kilmarnock took control of the game in the first half and went in 2-0 up at half-time. Kilmarnock took the lead after Liam Polworth slid a beautiful ball through to Djenairo Daniels who scored on his debut. David Watson then latched on to a loose ball in the box after Livingston’s ‘keeper parried a cross away to make it two.
Some terrible defending and a pull back on Robbie Muirhead from George Stanger led to a red card and a penalty which the fouled converted. Some great work from Lewis Smith was then smashed in by the on-rushing Scott Pitman to level the game up.
Motherwell 1-1 Rangers
The next match was the 5:30pm game on Sky which took place at Fir Park as Motherwell hosted Rangers. Motherwell under Jens Berthel Askou were courageous on the ball and wanted to play out from the back, similar to what Russell Martin wants his Rangers side to do.
On the day, Motherwell did it better and created more high quality chances, by a distance. Rangers took the lead in the first half as captain James Tavernier nodded in from a Joe Rothwell corner. Motherwell’s equaliser came from good play down the left from the impressive Emmanuel Longelo who, after some horror defending, smashed the ball into the bottom corner.
On another day, Motherwell could’ve won the game by two or three goals so can feel aggrieved to only come away with a point after their second half performance.
Falkirk 2-2 Dundee United
The early game on Sky on Sunday was newly promoted Falkirk taking on Dundee United. In what was a pretty entertaining and open game it took until the 40th minute for United to take the lead when Max Watters smashed in a volley after a poor clearance. Falkirk equalised through a well worked goal when Brad Spencer’s delicate lay-off was smashed in by Dylan Tait.
Some good work down the left by Panutche Camara was finished off expertly by Ivan Dolcek after some neat footwork within the box. That lead only lasted two minutes though as Ethan Ross brilliantly controlled Keelan Adams fired in Cross but got lucky with a deflection that let the ball roll into the back of the net to make it 2-2.
Dundee 1-2 Hibernian
Whilst this game was going on Hibs kicked off their season away at Dens Park. David Gray’s side massively dominated the game and took a two goal lead not long after the half hour mark.
For the first Obita fired in a cross which ended up deflecting into Kieron Bowie’s path who took a touch and fired it low across the ‘keeper to open the scoring. For Bowie’s second a long ball was played through to Obita and his effort ended up deflecting into Bowie’s path and he calmly slotted it into an empty net.
Dundee did pull a goal back through Finlay Robertson after he slotted in from an Ashley Hay cross although they didn’t really look like equalising.
The only disappointing thing for Hibs, aside from conceding, is that they didn’t score more goals.
Celtic 1-0 St Mirren
The final game saw Celtic raise the flag at Parkhead in a game which saw the second debut of Kieran Tierney whilst Benjamin Nygren also made his debut. As expected, the home side dominated possession and the shots on goal. Daizen Maeda rounded George in goal but couldn’t get his effort on target and the St.Mirren goalkeeper deflected a Nygren effort onto the bar.
Stephen Robinson’s side were fortunate to still be level in the second half after a deflected Hatate shot hit off the bar, deflected off of George onto the post then behind for a corner. Callum McGregor then had a goal disallowed for handball before the deadlock was finally broken in the 87th minute.
Luke McCowan got the ball on the edge of the box, cut back inside onto his left and his shot took a slight deflection to take it into the corner beyond a helpless George. St.Mirren had a couple of decent half chances on the break but didn’t really threaten much despite being really well organised.
Brendan Rodgers will probably use that performance as a reason to get the Celtic board to front up more money for further transfer targets but it was a deserved win.
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