Rangers not worried Ryan Kent will face Scottish Premiership suspension
The winger’s dismissal was the only negative as Gers kicked-off the Veolia Trophy pre-season tournament.
Rangers are confident Ryan Kent will not face a domestic suspension after his sending off in France.
The winger’s dismissal was the only negative as Gers kicked-off the Veolia Trophy pre-season tournament with an impressive 2-0 win over Lyon.
The former Liverpool player was dismissed just before half-time as he reacted to being goaded by the French club’s Brazilian midfielder Marcelo with a petulant slap.
But referee Karim Abed’s red-card call left boss Steven Gerrard sweating on his GBP 7million man ahead of the new Scottish Premiership season.
The Scottish Football Association may have been forced to issue a two-game ban for violent conduct – ruling Kent out of Rangers’ opening two league games away at Aberdeen and at home to St Mirren – had the French Football Federation passed on the official’s match report to their Hampden counterparts.
But a Rangers source told the PA news agency the club expects “no issues moving forward”, with Kent also free to face Nice in their final Veolia Trophy clash on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ibrox skipper James Tavernier has praised the club’s youngsters after they withstood a second-half onslaught to guide the 10-man Gers to victory over Lyon.
Gerrard’s team finished with a back four comprising academy recruits Nathan Paterson, Ross McCrorie and Lewis Mayo plus their 20-year-old summer recruit from Leicester, Calvin Bassey.
Tavernier told RangersTV: “You want the boys to learn off us all and learn off the coaches and make a claim for themselves. It’s their career, they’ve got everything in their hands to be very good players, so I was delighted for them and the way they’ve conducted themselves during this game.
“Nathan and Calvin, Rossco, who’s been on loan and he’s got his experience, and I thought Mayo was actually terrific, he was solid at the back. Really happy with them.
“I thought it was a good test for the boys and the majority of the game we dealt with it really well.
“We got ourselves in front, scored two good goals and could have scored more. Every man who came on and started the game were terrific.
“The young boys did a job for the team and the gaffer was really pleased with the performance.”
Kent was dismissed six minutes before the break but Rangers stood strong with 10 men even as Lyon threw on former Celtic hitman Moussa Dembele and one-time Manchester United player Memphis Depay.
“It almost reminded me a bit of Ufa (Europa League play-off opponents) in how we had to defend with less people on the pitch,” added Tavernier.
“We’ve worked on our defensive organisation not just during pre-season but during last year too. During these big games we come across, the team is really tightly knit and we’re hard to score against.
“It was Jon McLaughlin’s first game and he did a terrific job in goal.”
