Mark Warburton has dismissed suggestion that Rangers are ‘soft’ away from Ibrox with James Tavernier echoing the thoughts of the boss.
Beaten 2-0 and 4-1 – that was on Wednesday of course – at Tynecastle by Hearts this season Rangers go into the meeting with Ross County this afternoon seeking a reaction. This had come to those previous defeats.
Tavernier couldn’t put his finger on what happened. He was quoted by Sky Sports as saying.
‘I honestly don’t know. We pulled off a good win at Motherwell, it was one of the best 45 minutes we have played all season. Then we go to Tynecastle and it’s a total flip side. It doesn’t help conceding two poor goals at the start of each half. I’m not sure what it is when it comes to away games but we need to put things right.’
Dismissing the notion that Rangers are soft he went on to add.
‘I wouldn’t go along the lines of being soft because when we play them at home we certainly put in great performances. We beat Hearts and Aberdeen at home and we beat Hibs and Falkirk when they came to our place. It’s not a case of being soft because we are winning at our place, they are winning at their place. It’s just something we need to correct when we go to these places, and have a real good mentality and a real desire to win the game.’
The full back has taken comfort from the fact Rangers have reacted well to these previous away defeats. Especially the loss at Tynecastle earlier in the season as the Gers then went on a good run.
He went on to say we’ve just hit ‘a speed bump’ but Tavernier was left in little doubt we’ll put it right against Ross County.
‘The last time we lost at Hearts we went on a good eight-game run. This has just been a speed bump and we will definitely have to put things right against Ross County. We need to go on another good run to keep second place.’
Errors from Tavernier in that 2-0 loss in November resulted in the defender – who hasn’t found the going as easy this season as it was in his debut campaign with Rangers – being dropped.
He finished by acknowledging those errors and how those who were at fault on Wednesday would bounce back from them with the team fully united.
‘Last time we played at Hearts it was two individual errors from me. It comes down to certain mistakes from different people. All the lads will own up to it, we have good characters and we will always try to improve ourselves. There is nothing wrong with the team, we have a great group of lads and we will definitely learn from this.’
