It’s fair to say former Rangers striker Kris Boyd knew exactly where the back of the net was during his playing days.
The legendary former Ibrox hitman, 41, might be more recognisable these days making his living as a pundit with Boyd recently eviscerating the underperforming Rangers team.
But during his playing days the former Kilmarnock and Rangers hitman was the proverbial ‘number nine’ of the modern era with his 222 goals still a Scottish Premiership record.
Amongst them, Kris Boyd netted seven hat-tricks and scored five twice in one game, once for Kilmarnock against Dundee United in 2004 and again for Rangers against the same opposition in 2009.
But there is one hat-trick more than all the rest that stands out to the ex-Rangers hitman as Boydie reflected on ‘shutting Aberdeen fans up’ with a famous treble in 2007.
Kris Boyd relished ‘shutting Aberdeen fans up’
Kris Boyd was discussing his hat-trick record following Hamza Igamane’s perfect hat-trick in the 3-3 draw between Rangers and Hibs.
When asked to pick his favourite of seven trebles, Boyd recalled a a famous hat-trick against Aberdeen where the hitman hit three goals within 30 minutes to end the Dons’ challenge for second place.
Turning the screw on Rangers’ northeast rivals, Boyd reflected on the build-up to the game and insists it made the three strikes all the sweeter.
“Every goal means something in the context of the game,” Boyd told the Warm Up.
”That day at Rugby Park to score five and then equal a record there but then to go and do it again with Rangers was fantastic but there has been other ones in there.
”In fact, you know something, you know probably my favourite one?
”It was shutting the Aberdeen fans up that day at Ibrox.
”Because they had been giving it large that week that they were coming to Ibrox to run over the top of us.
”I think Michael Hart had a go saying that none of the Rangers players would get in the Aberdeen team.
“What a shout that was mate.
”Inside I think it was like 30 minutes hat-trick, bye-bye.”
Rangers legend questions Aberdeen collapse
Kris Boyd has also been talking about Aberdeen’s unceremonious collapse in the Scottish Premiership this season.
The Dons felt they had positioned themselves as potential title challengers in the early part of the season and were above Rangers in the hunt for a Champions League qualification place.
But despite that bright start to the campaign, Aberdeen are now on a run of ten games without a win with any notion they can challenge Rangers let alone Celtic all but extinguished.
”If you look at the performances at the start of the season and how good they were to where they are at right now, they look totally devoid of confidence,” said Boyd.
”There must’ve been something for that big a drop off.
”We spoke about it at the time, the fixtures were kind to Aberdeen. You’ve got to go and win the games, I totally get that.
“They’ve then went on a little run going to Celtic Park and playing Rangers, but they’ve came out of that still intact.
”They beat Dundee after being beat 6-0 by Celtic but since then, wow.
”They bounced back (from the Celtic defeat) but when you look at Hibs, the run that they were on, the games were close.
”Aberdeen, there’s absolutely nothing.”
