Glasgow Rangers owned forward Ryan Hardie’s time away from Ibrox continues to prove valuable.
With four goals in his first five games for Livingston, Ryan Hardie would have surely gone into Friday’s Scottish Championship clash with Dundee United high on confidence as he continues to make the most of his time away from Rangers.
Questions remain regarding Hardie’s future at Ibrox as his contract runs down into its final few months, but he is clearly doing all he can to prove to the Scottish Premiership side that he deserves fresh terms and can finally go on and prove that he can realise his full potential with the Gers.
And after his latest appearance, it is surely fair to suggest that he has once again given the Rangers hierarchy something to ponder as Livi consolidated their position in second place in the second tier with a dramatic 2-1.
It had appeared that the points may well be shared as Matthew Smith scored an equaliser for the Tangerines with just 16 minutes to go to cancel out Scott Robison’s opener in the first-half. But Hardie ensured in the final moments that David Hopkin’s men would be the ones celebrating.
The 20-year-old scored the winner with a brilliant strike from just outside the box in stoppage-time to secure the win for Livingston and take his tally to five goals in as many league games for the club. And after the game, he took to Twitter to celebrate the win.
Hardie will surely need to sustain something like this level of form for the rest of the season if he hopes to really his force his way into Graeme Murty’s plans, but the signs hint that those who had previously written the young striker off ever making the grade at Ibrox may actually ultimately end up eating their words.
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