Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was first to acknowledge his team had not produced their best in overcoming a Livingston team who led them for an hour. Yet, the sense of occasion generated owing to the calibre of the Ibrox side and their travelling support’s intense backing left one participant slack-jawed.
Livingston’s new keeper Shamal George may have been schooled at Liverpool’s academy but his playing days have been restricted to England’s League Two, moving north from Colchester United in the summer.
None of it prepared him for his first taste of top-flight football in Scotland at home to one of the country’s big two. “The atmosphere, I have never experienced anything like it.
It’s definitely one that I will remember,” said the 24-year-old, who produced some fine stops but admitted how he lines up a defensive wall is “something I’ll look at” after James Tavernier’s free-kick winner. “It would have been better if we had got a draw or a win but the team played very well.