Nightmare start to league opener

Make no mistake about it, at five minutes past 12 in West Lothian, Livingston threatened to hammer Rangers with a disastrous start to the season.

In fact, it was partially self-inflicted with a sluggish start to proceedings and John Souttar enduring a hellish opening period being ragdolled by Joel Nouble who dinked home a rapid fire opener for the hosts.

Livingston is not an easy place to take points at the best of times, nevermind when the optimism for a new seadon is quickly dampened with near enough three-stands silenced by Nouble's finish.

There will no doubt have been sections of the support concerned at the first 45 minutes - but most improtantly for Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side was how they rallied - and a second-half comeback booted out any threat of a dire defeat.

New faces in action

John Souttar, Tom Lawrence, Antonio Colak and Malik Tillman all made their Rangers competitive debuts against Livingston.

It was a mixture of emotions for the debutants however with some faring better than others.

Souttar struggled in his first match for his news club after the move from Hearts in the summer. The centre-back was too easily shurgged aside by Joel Nouble for the opener and was well beaten in the physical battle.

Lawrence - while unable to score or assist - did enjoy a better start than Souttar however, he'll be hopeful there's much more to come in the future.

Colak was denied a dream start with a headed finish chopped off by the offside flag despite replays showing the call to be marginal and the striker appearing onside.

Tillman too was close to a scoring-start but he was denied by a Shamal George stop after he climbed off the bench.

Fighting spirit

For all the new bodies in at Rangers it was two familiar faces that proved vital in the comeback.

James Tavernier continued his incredible scoring form for the Ibrox side with a terrific free-kick to take the points at Livingston.

And Scott Arfield had levelled the game with a superb header in the second-half.

It looked like Van Bronckhorst would leave Livingston empty-handed for a period but one major positive he can take is the fighting spirit and never-say-die drive of his side to claw their way back into the match and run-out victors.