Former Rangers defender Alan Hutton has said that Kilmarnock took advantage of the Ibrox side' weakness down the left hand side, as the Rugby Park side stunned Steven Gerrard's men on Wednesday evening.
Rangers were on track for a win heading into the final 15 minutes, but were left on the ropes when Stephen O'Donnell equalised and visibly shell-shocked when Eamonn Brophy powered home the winner two minutes from time.
Plenty of blame has since been apportioned, but Hutton focused on Rangers' weakness down the left flank in the absence of the injured Borna Barisic.
The former Ibrox right-back was left unimpressed by the performance of stand-in left-back Andy Halliday, and feels Kilmarnock took full advantage of his defensive inefficiences.
“He’s a massive loss,” he said as quoted by Football Insider.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve actually seen how much [James] Tavernier was missed, if you like, because of his attacking, going forward, pushing teams back – it’s the same for Barisic.
"He really stepped up over the last few weeks when Tavernier was out. Everything was coming down the left hand side, all the good play.
“So for him to not be playing, it stuck out like a sore thumb.
“You know Halliday isn’t going to get forward and whip in balls into the box, especially with the quality that Barisic has, so it was a massive loss. I think Kilmarnock tried to play down that side, maybe knowing that Halliday isn’t the strongest defender.
“This is one of those things, you have to step up and take control of the situation, but I just think Rangers were left wanting.”
The result means Rangers fell to ten points behind Celtic and now have it all to do as they look to prevent the champions from claiming a ninth successive Premiership.
