AFC Bournemouth
Jermain Defoe is confident Rangers can challenge Celtic for the Scottish Premiership title – and believes they are “good enough” to win their remaining 11 games.
Defoe netted his fourth goal in six league appearances as the Gers registered a 5-0 victory over Hamilton at New Douglas Park yesterday.
Second-placed Rangers, who also put five past Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup in midweek, are currently eight points behind leaders Celtic – with the Old Firm rivals meeting twice.
“We want to win every game we play — and we believe we’re good enough to do that,” said Defoe in an interview with the Scottish Sun.
“We’re scoring goals, creating chances and playing with a really high intensity, which is what we are all about.”
Defoe will be hoping to maintain his rich vein of form when Rangers host Dundee at Ibrox on Wednesday.
His Cherries teammate Harry Arter made his 22nd Premier League appearance for Cardiff in their 5-1 defeat by Watford at Cardiff City Stadium on Friday.
Tyrone Mings went close to grabbing a dramatic late winner in Aston Villa’s 1-1 draw at Stoke City in the Championship on Saturday.
His looping header deep into stoppage-time, which had looked destined for the top corner, was superbly clawed away by Potters goalkeeper Jack Butland.
Earlier, ex-Cherries star Sam Vokes had opened the scoring for Stoke before Albert Adomah’s leveller denied the hosts a first win in six games.
Connor Mahoney came off the bench in the 70th minute against former club Blackburn in Birmingham’s 2-2 draw at St Andrew’s, while Marc Pugh was an unused substitute in Hull’s 5-1 defeat at Brentford.
Aaron Ramsdale’s heroics proved in vain as AFC Wimbledon suffered a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at the hands of Charlton Athletic in League One.
Ramsdale made a smart save to keep out Josh Cullen’s effort with the score at 1-1 and then pulled off another top-drawer stop from Joe Aribo in injury-time.
But Igor Vetokele was on hand to bundle home the rebound, his winner adding to Naby Sarr’s free-kick which had cancelled out Michael Folivi’s opener for the Dons.
Alex Dobre played a major role as Courtney Duffus scored the only goal as Yeovil ended a six-game losing run with a 1-0 win over fellow League Two strugglers Cambridge United.
The lively Dobre tricked his way into the box before seeing his low shot saved straight into the path of Duffus, who had a simple tap-in after 25 minutes.
Keelan O’Connell made his full debut for Greenock Morton in their 1-0 defeat by Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Championship, while Charlie Seaman played the full 90 minutes in Dundee United’s 1-1 draw at Falkirk.
Goalkeeper Jordan Holmes was an unused substitute in St Mirren’s 1-1 draw at Hearts in the Scottish Premiership, while Mikael Ndjoli looked on from the bench as Kilmarnock went down 1-0 at Livingston.
Defender Tyler Cordner played his part as Havant & Waterlooville claimed another precious point in their battle to beat the drop from the National League after drawing 0-0 at FC Halifax Town.
Frank Vincent came off the bench in the 71st minute in Torquay's 5-2 victory over Dulwich Hamlet in National League South.
Defender Sam Sherring played his part as Weymouth maintained their Southern Premier League South promotion push with a 2-1 win over Merthyr Town at the Bob Lord Stadium.
Brennan Camp, fresh from his goalscoring exploits with Scotland under-19s, went close to drawing first blood for Dorchester Town in their 2-0 defeat at Swindon Supermarine in Southern Premier League South.
James Boote replaced Cherries teammate Jake Scrimshaw in the 58th minute of Poole Town’s 4-0 defeat at Harrow Borough in Southern Premier League South.
Brad Smith started Seattle Sounders’ final pre-season friendly, a 2-2 draw with San Jose Earthquakes. Sounders begin their Major League Soccer campaign against FC Cincinnati on March 2.
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