A gutted Mark Warburton has admitted that Rangers gave themselves a mountain to climb in the Scottish League Cup defeat to St Johnstone last night.
Video – St Johnstone Highlights
The goals in the opening 46 minutes of the match gave us too much to do and a poor performance wasn’t made much better with Tavernier’s consolation inside of the last half hour, so an honest Warburton was left telling the Official Site that we gave ourselves too much to do and it has to be a harsh lesson that we learn and learn quickly.
With eleven wins from eleven going into the game though he knows this isn’t the time for doom and gloom, it’s a time to open our eyes and ensure it was one of those days and not a complacency creeping in.
‘We conceded three goals – simple as that, and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. The players are such an honest group, and they were first to admit that for the first goal, they should have stopped the cross, and for the second one, we didn`t get out to the corner. That`s something we practice, and while it was a great strike, we were two down at half time. Then to concede straight after the break in that manner is very disappointing, but we showed a great reaction.’
The positive at that point for the gaffer was the reaction of the players as they kept on ‘playing and probing’ and with the woodwork saving them twice, but other chances before we got the goal, he knows the reaction was right and on another day maybe the second half would’ve made up for the first.
‘I looked at the clock with over half an hour left, and at 3-1 we had time. But St Johnstone had nine men behind the ball, they frustrated us and tried to break on us – al credit to them though. They came here with a plan, they stuck to it, and we have to learn from a situation like that. Dumbarton was exactly the same, and we have to work on the quality of our runs and taking care – these are things we do every day and we need to better that.’
Warburton went on to say that everyone was disappointed in the dressing room, but key now is acknowledging how far we have come since he arrived at the club, and now acknowledging how far there is left to go and making sure we learn the lessons from this defeat because if we do that, the defeat will have served a purpose and improved us.
Another thing that did please the gaffer was the fact that the fans kept with the side, and he hoped recognised their efforts to get back into it.
Asked whether he felt the fans on the night, despite the defeat, showed that they were buying into what he was trying to achieve with us, he said.
‘I hope so. The fans have been magnificent from day one, and we always say that. It was a test for us tonight to see their reaction, but they back their team. We said in the changing room that the fans were with us right to the final whistle, so that was very welcome and much appreciated, so hopefully they saw that we were losing 3-1 but there was no lack of application or lack of work ethic, and the players kept on going right to the final whistle. We will have a bad day at the office sometimes, but if we always maintain that work ethic then we`ll be in good shape.’
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