Scottish Premier League round-up: Match-winner Velicka urges Rangers to move on

Andrius Velicka secured an opening-day win for Rangers in the Scottish Premier League on Saturday and then urged the club to move on from unexpected elimination from Europe at the hands of Kaunas last week.

The striker scored his first goal for Rangers at Falkirk to ensure a positive end to a difficult week. The pressure was on to begin the SPL campaign with a win after Walter Smith's side were embarrassingly beaten by Velicka's former team in a crucial Champions League qualifier on Tuesday night.

Rangers have spent the days since agonising over what went wrong in Lithuania but, now they are off to a winning start domestically, Velicka believes it is time to look ahead. He said: "It was disappointing but we have to forget it – it's history. We now just have to give full effort in the SPL and make sure we win it. We won and we are happy. We start the league with three points and that is good for us."

Rangers looked far from convincing and would have been chasing the game had Michael Higdon's penalty not been saved by Allan McGregor when the match was still level. Asked whether the Ibrox club were fortunate to leave Falkirk with maximum points, Velicka shrugged: "We won it and that is the main point. It was the opening game and we were a little bit nervous. That's normal. But we got the three points and we need to keep this effort going."

Velicka joined Rangers this summer less than four months after leaving Hearts for the Norwegian side, Viking Stavanger. He has been playing non-stop for a year now and believes his match fitness gave him the edge when he was paired with Kris Boyd yesterday. He said: "It is helping me now but I don't know if it will help me in three or four months. But I hope to play in every single game."

However, with no fewer than three new forwards arriving since last season, Velicka is realistic enough to know he faces a fight to remain in Smith's plans.

While Velicka was looking forward Boyd was still bitter about Rangers' loss in Europe. Boyd, who was the club's top scorer last term with 25 goals despite starting only 23 games, came off the bench in the 66th minute of the goalless first leg at Ibrox and was brought on with two minutes left in Lithuania – moments after Rangers fell 2-1 behind. "Over the two legs I could have got one or two goals," Boyd said. "I don't think Kaunas were anything great. Even on their day I don't think they're any better than a team finishing fourth or fifth in Scotland."

Elsewhere in the SPL there were victories for Inverness, 2-0 at Aberdeen, Hearts, who beat Motherwell 3-2 with a late winner from Saulius Mikoliunas, and Kilmarnock who won 1-0 at home against Hibernian.