James Tavernier is new Rangers ‘Penalty King’ but there’s a catch

And amid the excitement and controversy of the pulsating 3-3 draw, an important statistic has, perhaps understandably, flown under the radar.

In hitting the net past Joe Hart, the prolific English full-back surpassed Johnny Hubbard as Rangers' leading penalty scorer.

Club sources have confirmed their records show the South African winger, who passed away in 2018, hit 65 for Rangers over a decade between 1949 and 1959 when he became a storied figure.

And while Tavernier has amassed an incredible tally in terms of sheer volume, he still has some way to go in matching his fellow Rangers’ legend’s accuracy.

Rangers' legend Johnny Hubbard launches his new autobiography The Penalty King (Image: SNS)

Hubbard only missed three penalties – not that it would have been wise to phrase the statistic like that. The man himself would bristle at the suggestion, and is quoted as saying: “I didn’t miss any penalty, the goalkeepers saved them.”

Hubbard has every right to be proud of his accuracy given his penalty success rate was a jaw-dropping 95.58 per cent. While Tavernier might now have a higher overall tally, he sits far behind on this metric at 80.04 per cent.

Interestingly, while the current Rangers captain has missed 16 spot kicks, his record of conversion in the big moments is extremely good. Rangers have never lost a game where he’s missed from 12 yards and only drawn one.

Hubbard scored 106 goals in 238 games for the Govan club and picked up three titles. He was the first African to grace the European Cup when he took the field against Nice in the 1956/57 season.

Regardless of how you slice the numbers, both will ultimately be remembered as figures of great significance in their separate eras. 

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