Jordan Jones finally managed his first Rangers start in over a year, and fans were overjoyed to see the NI winger’s name in the team sheet.

Word is he’s been told he can leave, but with Rangers’ injury issues and a need to use the full squad, Steven Gerrard unexpectedly leaned on the attacker to start at Fir Park, and here’s our assessment of a player who’s been harshly treated the past 12 months.

He started slow – nervous, desperate to impress (either his manager or watching scouts from other sides) and that shakiness did show as he struggled a little to get into the groove of the match.

Of course this wasn’t surprising given he’d been effectively out in the cold since September 2019, but it’s an astonishing testament to his persistence that not only did he make a brilliant run to feed onto Scott Arfield’s stunning assist, but he then did plenty of hard work before slotting a sharp acute finish into the net off the post to find the goal at his first attempt.

From there on in we won’t say he was remarkable, but he was more involved, and his confidence was much, much higher – that finish would have done him the world of good, and he tried dribbles, managed some crosses and cut backs and started calling for the ball too.

His stats read:

Shots: 2
Goals: 1
Fouled: once
Dispossessed: once
Lost the ball: twice
Crosses: 2
Accurate: 0
Passing: 76%
Touches: 39

Dribbles: 0

Now we take issue with the dribble and acc crosses stat – we saw at least two or more dribbles from him, including one which won a foul, and he definitely managed a cross or two that was ‘on target’ but got cut out by the defender.

But overall? He can be very happy with his afternoon. He’s given his manager a selection issue and demonstrated he’s a viable option now – it might be the start of his Rangers career at long last and we hope it is.