James Tavernier breathing down Kris Boyd's neck as Rangers skipper admits free-kick duty originally an ACCIDENT

James Tavernier admits he’s got no chance of chasing down Ronald Koeman’s incredible goal record for a defender.

But the Rangers skipper is backing himself to overtake former Ibrox hitman Kris Boyd’s Light Blues tally. The right-back is now Britain’s joint highest-scoring stopper having moved level with former Scotland defender Graham Alexander on 130 strikes - with 122 of those coming since he joined Gers in 2015.

While he’s got a long way to go before former Holland and Barcelona star Koeman’s astonishing total of 253 comes into sight, striker Boyd’s Ibrox haul of 138 Rangers goals does look catchable. The captain said: “Yeah I think it would be nice to topple Boydy. I heard someone say I’m getting close to that. That’s the one I’ll be looking down on to see if I can overtake that.

“I don’t think I’m catching Koeman. I saw the amount of games he did it in. That’s a big amount of goals to catch up. But my goal record is definitely creeping up. I’ve seen some tables for the world’s leading defenders, top goalscorers.

“It’s an unbelievable achievement for me personally. It’s something I’ll probably only really appreciate once I do hang up my boots. But I know that’s going to be a long way down the line.”

Tav opened his Rangers account with a free-kick stunner in a Challenge Cup win over Hibs as he made his debut for Mark Warburton’s then Championship side. But he revealed that wasn’t in the original plan. “I wasn’t meant to be on free-kicks,” he told Sky Sports. “I think it was supposed to be Nicky Law on them the day before but I thought I’d just jump myself in and take a few at training.

“On the game day it came up and when you fancy yourself and back yourself, you put yourself forward. I did and it managed to go in.