Rangers get off to winning start in Belfast

Linfield 0 Rangers 2

The Paul Le Guen era at Rangers got off to a winning start with a 2-0 victory over Linfield at Windsor Park.

Thomas Buffel and Kris Boyd provided the goals in the Ibrox club’s first pre-season friendly.

The Gers will now prepare to head out to South Africa on Saturday for more games, before the new Bank of Scotland Premier League campaign begins at Motherwell on July 30.

The only new face in the starting line-up was former Paris St Germain goalkeeper Lionel Letizi, who was recruited in the summer as a replacement for Ronald Waterreus.

Also starting the game was Jose Pierre-Fanfan, who failed to make an impact during his debut season at Ibrox, and has been told he is free to find a new club.

Le Guen’s arrival in the dugout was met by rapturous applause from the Rangers fans, who waved the red, white and blue tricolours of France.

But the warmest welcome came from Linfield boss David Jeffrey, who planted a continental-style kiss on the stunned Frenchman.

On the park, the opener came from Rangers after just 12 minutes when Boyd delivered a header ino the path of Buffel and he shrugged off the challenge of William Murphy to slot home from eight yards.

Boyd pounced on a slack backpass from Jim Ervin to grab the second goal of the game with 24 minutes gone, sliding the ball coolly past goalkeeper Alan Mannus.

However, there was concern for Rangers when Chris Burke hobbled off on the half hour mark after picking up a knock – to be replaced by Nacho Novo.

Linfield started the second half well and the Northern Ireland champions could have hauled a goal back through Mark Dickson but he curled wide of the target from just inside the box.

Le Guen’s other major summer signings, Libor Sionko and Karl Svensson, will not be joining up with the rest of the squad until the trip to South Africa.

But former Rennes youngsters William Stanger and Antoine Ponroy came off the bench to make their first appearances in a Rangers jersey at Windsor Park.

However, it was Linfield who almost provided the final flourish to this game when Tom Mouncy bulleted a header just over the crossbar late on.