With a loss for Rangers at the weekend in the game against Hibernian at Ibrox, manager Graeme Murty has demanded better in tonight’s clash against Partick Thistle.
Hosting the Hibees on home soil for the tie last Saturday, despite Rangers being far more dominant in every telling statistic, they took the advantage at the end of the first half but our efforts did finally see Goss level with just under 20 minutes remaining. Two minute we conceded a penalty and the points on the day.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the press following the game, Murty blamed ten seconds of madness where we failed to refocus after scoring ourselves as being the reason behind the loss.
He did however feel there were positives he could take and he was demanding the players take that into the next one and take victory tonight.
‘It`s fine margins, and the fine margins the higher up the leagues you go, the more they actually come into play. And then the finer they are, the sharper we have to be in dealing with those margins. It`s just par for the course that we have to make sure we nail certain stuff down. Like I said, but for 10 seconds, and four moments where we made poor choices, there were lots of positives to take from Saturday.’
Murty went on to admit we certainly struggled in the first half, but he was delighted with the ‘fantastic adjustments we made at half time’ and with so much domination over them at that point, the frustration at losing the match was palpable – but he was confident the players would make up for it.
‘The result wasn`t what we wanted and we are hurting. We are disappointed, but let`s not get too far ahead of ourselves as it is not the end of the world. We lost a game we should have won and we have a chance to go and get a win tomorrow. It`s all down to how we react – we`ve had a setback by losing one and we need to make sure we don`t make it two. They were disappointed but it`s up to us to put it behind us and go and get a positive result.’
Going on to describe the game as a ‘setback’ he said our sites were still firmly set on Celtic and Aberdeen as you have to aim high and then earn the right to be there. He also didn’t feel that pressure was an issue because we’re Rangers, pressures a part of life.
‘Saturday was a setback for us, but you have to react positively, and you have to take the opportunities that are in front of you. We have an opportunity to go and get three points – and that`s all we can focus on. If Aberdeen go and win every game between now and the end of the season, then we will have a tough task to catch them. But we want to go and crack-on and try to win as many games as we possibly can.’
Looking ahead to tonight, Murty explained yesterday that he had to credit the group as they all held their hands up to the errors against Hibernian and they were determined to show the fans that lessons had been learned and acted upon.
‘A big part of leadership is accountability. You have to put your hands up when things haven`t gone well or things have gone badly or mistakes have been made. Not in a way to apportion blame or to make people feel bad, but in order to improve. That is the atmosphere and culture that I want. I want people here who are accountable in order to be the very, very best that we can be. For 10 seconds in the second half, we weren`t the best we can be. But, people were accountable to it and people have held their hands up to say they have made mistakes. That is how you get better and that is how you learn and that is how you come together as a squad. That is going to be tested again tomorrow, so hopefully we have learned the lessons and we can move forward together.’
He also dismissed suggestions that we were lacking leadership with more senior players missing at the moment, as he was content with the leadership shown by people at all levels – not just Jason Holt who has been wearing the armband but even name checking Ross McCrorie for his own attitude.
Ultimately it’s about players leading themselves though and later this evening we’ll see if they do just that.
