On a night where plenty of his team-mates were panicking, Lawrence Shankland was a figure of calm for Rangers in Falkirk. His two goals were decisive for Derek McInnes' side, earning a second Scottish Premiership win of the season days after the captain's penalty delivered the first at Pittodrie. In an error-strewn game that lacked quality, Shankland was the difference maker.
His first whistled into the roof of the net off his weaker left foot, while his second - again on his left - was passed into the bottom corner with the game on a knife edge. Falkirk boss John McGlynn summed up the Scotland striker's impact. "If Lawrence Shankland is in a navy blue jersey, we win the game tonight," he told BBC Scotland.
After being linked with a move to his boyhood club for years, Shankland finally signed for Rangers in May after netting 60 goals in his last three seasons at Hearts. The winning goal came shortly after he had slid a low shot wide with the goal at his mercy. Shankland brace at Falkirk gives Rangers back-to-back league wins Aasgaard makes Anderlecht switch as Rangers reject Raskin bid "I'm very pleased for Lawrence," said McInnes, who followed Shankland to Ibrox from Hearts in the summer.
"I thought his second goal was particularly good, considering he missed the chance that he would be kicking himself with. But, like all good strikers, the experience of Lawrence, the calmness of Lawrence, the quality comes up with a big moment." Before successive wins in the past four days, Rangers had endured a slow start under McInnes, dropping points in both their opening league matches and being knocked out of Europe by little-known Czech side Jablonec. Shankland too struggled in those early-season games, but he now appears to be replicating his best Tynecastle form.
He has three goals in his four Premiership games this term and his link-up play on Wednesday was also impressive, bringing the likes of Djeidi Gassama and Kim Min-Su into play. No player on either side had more shots and only Gassama had more touches in the opposition box. "I'm delighted for him because it's not been, like for all of us, the easiest of starts," McInnes added.
"Obviously Lawrence would feel the weight of that a lot more than some others, just because of his background and how eager he is. "A proper captain's performance out there tonight." As well as Shankland's match-winning display, the other item of note from a Rangers perspective was the return to action of midfielder Nicolas Raskin. The Belgian is one of the club's most valuable assets, an established international who impressed at the World Cup.
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