Rangers Weren’t Happy But Somebody Was

Rangers manager Graeme Murty has said the squad weren’t happy with midweek victory over St Johnstone, but Greg Docherty certainly was.

Heading to McDiarmid Park for the tie on Tuesday, goals from James Tavernier, Josh Windass, Sean Goss and Alfredo Morelos gave the side a pretty comfortable four one victory on the day but speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, Murty claimed that the players weren’t happy with the performance in what was our fifth straight win.

‘I was satisfied, I was satisfied with some of our play, with how we dealt with their threats overall, albeit I would have liked a clean sheet, but the changing room in there are a little bit down and flat. They thought the last 30 minutes weren`t of the required standard, they want to do better and they are a little bit moany which is quite interesting.’

Murty clearly disagreed as he went on to say he’d have taken a four one victory ahead of the first whistle without a second thought.

‘For me I would have snapped your hand off for 4-1 before we came here and I thought the professionalism and quality of the performance at times was very good. I thought the fourth goal kind of took our foot off the pedal a little bit but overall I am delighted we came here and managed to put that performance in and get that result.’

With the game played in less than perfect conditions given the weather this week, he went on to explain that it was all credit to the players for their approach and attitude as they could’ve switched off and looked for excuses.

‘I want to praise the team because I said it would have been really easy to not fancy it and blame the conditions and say Celtic only did this or that against them but they didn`t and they showed a relentless and professional streak. They want to push the standards forward and they want to drive what we are doing this season, it doesn`t have to come from me, it is coming from them. I asked them if they would have taken 4-1 at the start and they all said yes but we need to be better, we can be better and we will be better – fantastic that is what I want to hear.’

Greg Docherty stood out in the dressing room post game, as in his own interview the 21 year old spoke about his ‘delight’ at the showing.

‘It was a massive three points for us tonight. We wanted to put a statement out and I think we did that. First-half performance I thought we were exquisite and some of the goals were brilliant. It was a joy to play in to be honest with you. It was very comfortable and second half we dropped a bit, which is a bit disappointing, but we did`t lose the second half which was big for us. But yeah, we`ll take that and we`ll move on to the next one.’

With Tavernier opening the scoring from the penalty spot, Docherty felt that was perfectly timed to set us underway in the game.

‘It was pressure penalty and there was no better man to step up, just how cool he was as he slotted it home. It`s brilliant to play with guys like that and I`m learning off them – guys like Jamie Murphy and Josh and everybody has been great with me. I`m enjoying playing for Rangers just now and as you can see the players are happy at the moment and long may it continue.’

With Docherty involved in the second goal, he added about his own contribution.

‘For me, I love creating goals, I love getting assists and that`s two in two for me now so that is big. That`s something I`m look to add to my game as well and this season I`ve managed to do it a wee bit. Obviously I would like to add goals but if I can get an assist that`s good enough for me. I`ll keep working away but it was a great finish from Josh and it`s a joy to be playing and getting goals like that, it`s really good football. We`re loving it at the moment.’