THE name on the back of his shirt simply read Oh.
But if his finishing was better, they could have changed it to Four-Oh.
Which might just have left Russell Martin waving Cheeri-Oh.
The Korean striker had come to town promising the Ibrox goal that eluded him during his time with Celtic – and the irony is that when it finally came, it was from the hardest chance presented to him all night.
He’d smashed one into the Copland Lower from eight yards with Jack Butland.
He’d grabbed the ball to take a first half stoppage time penalty, but looked stressed out of his nut as he hit it too near to the diving keeper.
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He’d slid one wide from two yards out minutes into the second half.
So when he was sent through one-on-one with 55 on the clock, you wouldn’t have bet your last two won coin on him keeping as cool as he did to bury one in the corner the way he did.
Maybe he even surprised himself, given the way he raced towards the little wedge of travelling fans in between the Broomloan and Sandy Jardine stands, not only ripping off his shirt but following up by hauling the heart monitor vest off too.
If his mates hadn’t caught up with him sharpish, the shorts and jockstrap might have landed next to a ballboy.
Had this been a two-legged tie, the Belgians might have lived to regret how wasteful their frontman had been in front of goal. But in this league format, all that matters is the win
And in any case, at least the boy was in there to miss all those sitters.
As opposed to the £22million man in the Rangers No9 shirt.
That’s how much Youssef Chermiti has been transferred for, first from Sporting Lisbon to Everton and then – after two goal-barren years – on to Govan.
On the evidence of the 80 minutes he gave in his first start since arriving on Deadline Day, it’s hellish hard to see what successive scouts have seen in him.
Sure, so Oh needed four openings before he buried one. But there wasn’t a home fan in the place who wouldn’t have given their right arm to see their most expensive buy in a generation even look like he might be getting into the right position to almost get on the end of a quarter-chance.
The big fella just seemed to run little shuttles between centre-backs, shoulders slumping every time the ball was popped off just before he got there. He didn’t look capable of holding the ball up to let his mates get up the park, didn’t carry the ball…to be honest, he didn’t really do much at all.
OK, so he played half of those 80 minutes pretty isolated after the stupid challenge that saw Mohamed Diomande let the side down with a straight red card.
But that’s when top strikers – and in Scottish football, £10m should BUY a top striker – come into their own, when they find way to get involved, when they show why the massive tag is hanging from the shirt.
Unfortunately for Chermiti, it looked like that tag was weighing him down like a ten-tonne medallion.
What another summer arrival in Bojan Miovski thought when he heard was being left out after scoring his first goal in Saturday’s cup win over Hibs is anyone’s guess. Ditto what went through his mind when he was then thrown on with ten minutes left and thousands in an already-depleted crowd drifting for the subway.
It wasn’t as odd a decision by Martin as the one he made to leave key midfielder Nico Raskin out when they were desperate for results – but there’s no doubt it’s another one that makes you believe the manager is second-guessing himself, thinking way too far outside the box.
There’s no question that the night might had been different had a couple of things gone his way.
Seventeen minutes in, a free-kick to Genk’s far post was beautifully cushioned back across goal by John Souttar, who was turning to celebrate a goal on his 29th birthday when Genk skipper Bryan Hyenan lunged towards his own line and somehow hooked a toe round the ball to get it to safety.
Then, ten minutes from the break, James Tavernier’s header hit Joris Kayembe on the arm, only for Slovakian ref Matej Jug to punish the home skipper for a shove.
Me? I think he knew the handball wasn’t a penalty in the spirit of the game, but that it was by the book, so he gave himself an out.
But remember, by then Genk had already hit a post, missed Oh’s first sitter, then they missed the penalty, then missed another open goal, then Oh had one chalked off.
The weird thing is, throughout all this there was no groundswell of anger, no one hanging over the barricades, no abuse hurled at a gaffer who’d faced a 2,000 protest outside the front door at the weekend.
When it was over, though?
Up went the chant: Martin, Martin, get tae f***.
How long now before the owners listen?
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