£2m former Rangers man scores first goal since April 2023 as manager hails his 'really good impact'

01/25/2025 06:00 AM

Some players are simply born to score goals and others – such as the former Rangers defender playing some of the best football of his career south of the border – are born to stop them.

In fact, the one-time Auchenhowie kid had not found the net in a competitive fixture since April 2023

For the sake of context, a Rangers side containing Alfredo Morelos, Fashion Sakala and Allan McGregor beat Dundee United 2-0 that very same weekend thanks to a brace from Malik Tillman.

It has been a long time indeed, then, since Ross McCrorie’s name last graced a scoresheet. He would change all that, however, when finding the net for the first time in two years during Bristol City’s hard-fought 2-2 draw at Sheffield Wednesday in midweek.

And talk about timing.

Heading home a dramatic equaliser with 86 minutes on the clock at Hillsborough, the man who joined Bristol City via Aberdeen for around £2 million could hardly have picked a finer moment to end his 41 game goal drought.

And what an important late intervention this could be in the context of Bristol City’s season.

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A goal, and a point, which puts Liam Manning’s red-breasted Robins only four points behind stalling Blackburn Rovers in the Championship play-off race.

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To think, there was once a time when Pedro Caixinha – albeit rather unhelpfully in hindsight, considering the pressure it applied to such a young player – felt that Ross McCrorie had all the makings of a potentially iconic Scottish centre-back.

Now 26, McCrorie has played in just about every other position on the pitch in the years since making his breakthrough under the madcap Portuguese. While a right-footer by trade, McCrorie actually lined up as a left-sided wing-back in the Steel City in midweek.

“Ross, on the other side, had a real good impact,” manager Manning told the reporters as the one-time Scotland international finally opened his Bristol City account.

“When you look at it, there are numerous lads that hit a certain level, especially second-half.”

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Neither Manning nor McCrorie have little intention of resting on their laurels and admiring their progress, however.

Bristol City have spent the last nine years in the Championship while barely laying a glove on the top-six. Now, with McCrorie acting as their Mr Versatile, with a striker in form in Nakhi Wells and a promising young tactician in Manning orchestrating things from the sidelines, this most wide-open of Championship seasons may just be the opportunity the team bordering the River Avon have been waiting for.

“It’s a proud moment for myself [to score my first Bristol City goal],” McCrorie beams before immediately getting back to business. “But I won’t be dwelling on it too much. We’ve got a game in two days so it’s a case of getting home, recovering and going again.

“I think we’ve just got to take confidence especially from that second-half performance and we’ve got really good form at home.

“The fans are great backing as well. We’ve got a top team, top quality players in that squad and it’s all about putting the fine details together and seeing where that takes us until the end of the season.”