Lewis Toshney lived the dream on Saturday as he became the first Celtic player to pick up a win bonus from Ibrox this season.
Less than a month into his loan deal at Kilmarnock he was thrust into the toughest game of his career as the Ayrshire side faced a full house of passionate supporters struggling to deal with the worst week of their lives.
Even at odds of 8/1 Killie weren’t attracting much interest as the bookies anticipated Rangers powering their way to the points on a tide of emotion.
Ninety minutes later Toshney, playing at right-back, and his new team-mates had pulled off one of the shocks of the season thanks to a Dean Shiels goal that settled the match.
In truth Kilmarnock should have won more comfortably but with a victory at Ibrox on his cv Toshney couldn’t have been happier with his loan move.
“The atmosphere was electric at the start,” he admitted. “But we knew if we stuck to our game plan we would come through. To take three points was brilliant, but we weren’t surprised by it.
“We knew they would come at us early because of the atmosphere and what’s been happening but that was nothing to do with us. We just had to stick to our own task and we did that.
“This is the first time I have played at Ibrox. I have played in Old Firm matches against Rangers for the Under-19s, but this is the first time in the SPL and it was a brilliant experience.
“The atmosphere was incredible. It was like an Old Firm game, but we really stood up to them.
“The manager said we’d never done the double over Rangers and that was our priority. He has helped me a lot since I came to Kilmarnock.”
In the Championship it was a good weekend for the loan bhoys with Darren O’Dea and Daryl Murphy both enjoying wins.
O’Dea helped Leeds turn around a 2-0 deficit against Doncaster into a 3-2 win in front of new manager Neil Warnock.
At Portman Road Murphy played a major part in Ipswich’s 3-0 win over Carling Cup finalists Cardiff City.
Down a division Josh Thompson helped Chesterfield to a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday as John Sheridan enjoyed a win over his old club.
Elsewhere there wasn’t much action for the other loan bhoys with Richie Towell ruled out of the Hibs side that lost 5-0 to Celtic.
James Keatings had to suffer 90 minutes on the bench watching St Johnstone draw at Aberdeen while Greig Spence was a 70th minute substitute for Hamilton in their 1-0 defeat from Falkirk.
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