BBC Sport pundit Stephen Craigan claims he has “never witnessed” a greater on pitch transformation than that of Rangers star Tom Lawrence v St Johnstone.
The former Motherwell defender was speaking on BBC Sportscene about the performance of the returning Welsh international midfielder, who made his first start in over a year at the weekend.
With the early part of his Rangers career besieged by injury, there is huge hope Tom Lawrence can have a big impact on the campaign and both Stephen Craigan & Neil McCann analysed his performance.
After an initially slow start to the game, the BBC pundit claims he was genuinely stunned by the Tom Lawrence turnaround in a footballing first for Stephen Craigan.
Tom Lawrence praised by Neil McCann & Stephen Craigan
“Stephen (Craigan) and I were talking about [Tom Lawrence] upstairs,” said Neil McCann.
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“He started off in the wide position and when Michael [Beale] moved him into a more central one the first thing that he did was he took off.
“Raskin is positive [for Matondo’s goal] but Tom Lawrence is sitting in behind the two holding midfielders.
“His ability to see things and play it is good, but I like him here as well because he gets in behind midfielders.
“When he’s there he’s forceful, he can see a pass, he opens the game up, I thought he was much more involved.”
Stephen Craigan then added: “He just runs off midfield players, which means he then creates space for other people.
“I’ve never seen such a change in a player in a game as what I witnessed this afternoon with Tom Lawrence.
“He was anonymous for 60 65 minutes. The minute he went into his natural position, that was the real Tom Lawrence.
“His shoulders went back, he believed in himself, he was fully aware of the place, his game management was better and he was completely in sync with where he wanted to be.”
Rangers star Tom Lawrence joined last summer from Derby County but injury wrecked his first season at Ibrox.
Now back amongst the first team, there are hopes the ex-Manchester United star can be a difference maker this season.