Rangers manager Graeme Murty described himself as ‘proud’ following victory in the Scottish Cup over Ayr United.
Praising our hosts as being ‘exceptional’ on the day, despite falling behind after only eleven minutes had been played, Murty said he wasn’t concerned or worried as he had belief in the players to stage a fightback.
They certainly did that as Alfredo Morelos helped himself to a brace, as did Josh Windass with Jason Cummings and Jamie Murphy also finding themselves on the scoresheet in what ended as a six one victory.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the tie at Somerset Park, Murty explained.
‘I`m proud of the players. It was difficult and I thought that Ayr, for 60-70 minutes were exceptional in their application, their workrate and their understanding, and they had a lot of quality as well. But, we stayed patient and in the second half, we started to carve open opportunities. We had a little change of the shape into a 4-4-2 for a little bit of it, and we looked a little bit more comfortable in that, but I was always comfortable, even at 1-0 down, that we had enough quality on the pitch and on the bench for us to cause them problems, and thankfully, we managed to score at good times.’
With some of the passages of play being very easy on the eye, Murty was hoping we could take that kind of level of performance on and into the rest of the season.
‘The tempo, and the quality and the clarity and the cleanness and sharpness of the play is where we want to be. We are not going to get there all the time, and we need to understand that and not get frustrated. That`s where we need to be a little bit more patient, but when we do up that tempo and go up a gear, I think we are very, very difficult to play against, and we need to isolate those moments, show them back to the players, and if you could bottle it, it would be worth quite a bit of money.’
There was also no blame for the goal conceded placed in the direction of goalkeeper Wes Foderingham as Murty knew that on occasions that does happen in the game and you have to move on quickly when it does.
‘It can happen at any time, especially the way we want to play. We want to play with Wes as the next outfield player and we want to be able to utilise him, but these things happen. They went and pressed at the right time and managed to get a goal from it. As frustrating as it is for Wes, he knows we have his back and these things are part of football. Wes has taken ownership of it and I never had any doubts that he is a big enough guy to come back from it, and I thought that, in the second half, he looked comfortable.’
Following the victory it has now been confirmed that we will face Falkirk in the quarter final stage of the competition and the game is provisionally set for the weekend of March 3/4.
With Morelos and Cummings partnering each other up front in the game, it was the first time they have started together and Murty wasn’t ruling out making the same selection in the future as he was pleased with the early and initial signs he saw.
‘It is in its infancy and it is a start. I just wanted to see if it would work and if they would complement one another, and I thought at times they made the same runs as they are a similar type of player. But, we showed we have got people who can score goals, and if we can get both of them understanding one another, and we can get a better understanding with them, then it is something I wouldn`t be afraid to do again.’
