Glasgow Rangers will be looking for revenge after their recent defeat to Saturday’s opponents.
Peter Lovenkrands has suggested that Lee Hodson did enough during Rangers’ victory over Aberdeen last weekend to keep his place in the side for the clash with Hearts this Saturday, the Evening Times reports.
With James Tavernier in the squad, Hodson has had to be patient since his summer move to Ibrox. Before the game against the Dons, he had made just six appearances for the Gers, with just one coming in the Scottish Premiership.
Celtic’s James Forrest in action with Rangers’ Lee Hodson
However, he grasped his opportunity against Derek McInnes’ men with both hands as he scored the goal that proved to be the winner and won the man of the match award as the Light Blues came within seconds of keeping a clean sheet against one of their closest rivals in the Scottish Premiership.
And ahead of the fixture against Hearts, Lovenkrands is adamant that Tavernier should not regain his place in the side just yet.
“Lee deservedly won the man of the match last Saturday and surely he can’t be left out this weekend,” he said, as reported by the Evening Times.
Rangers manager Mark Warburton
“I felt the defence looked really solid last week – Clint Hill and Rob Kiernan were also excellent – but for that one blip when Jayden Stockley should have scored with a header.
“Scoring what proved to be the winning goal was the icing on the cake for him, but his overall performance was very good.
“Defensively he was very strong and it would be incredibly harsh to take out the man of the match who scored the winning goal.”
While the man sitting out of each game may not always agree, the battle for the right-back position will be extremely encouraging to Mark Warburton.
In time, Rangers will be hoping to boast that kind of depth in every position across the pitch, as it will inevitably mean that they stand a much greater chance of mounting a title challenge in future.
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