Manager Mark Warburton has spoken of his anger at the second half performance from Rangers in the weekend’s two one loss to Falkirk.
Making the trip to Falkirk Stadium, Rangers were behind in the third minute and despite getting themselves back on level terms just over ten minutes later that was the end of the scoring for us on the day, as we couldn’t make greater chances or possession count in the match.
A second half goal from them returned the first loss of the season, and speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, a very unhappy Warburton explained.
‘We had a poor 20 minutes after half time. I`ve just seen the stats – we had 70% possession, 15 corners and X number of shots, but the fact is we gave the ball away cheaply in that 20 minute period, and they of course scored their goal and Wes Foderingham pulled off a World-class save. The fact is we recovered from an appalling decision, and if you look at the foul on Nathan Oduwa later on – Nathan would have been the same distance outside the box. If you`re going to make calls of that nature you have to be positive. It was a bizarre decision and meant we went one-down early in an important game. It was a great recovery to get the equaliser and at half-time we were flying. At the interval, we went back out and we were in great shape, so that was really disappointing, and we`ve had a chat in there about why we gave the ball away so cheaply. But then, in the last 25-minutes, we dominated and we had to score the penalty. We had the chance, we had to score. There were a few other good shouts as well. We`re obviously very disappointed but the boys are very aware of the headlines that are coming and to feed off the negativity which will invariably come now as a result of that.’
With the penalty shout being the controversial moment in the game, Warburton wanted to choose his words carefully.
‘If you give an opponent a goal, they have something to hang onto. We know we can dominate possession, but we have to hurt teams with that. I think 90% of the stadium knew it was outside the box, so it was a bizarre decision although I have to be careful about what I say.’
The frustration for the gaffer was that he knows we had the chances to at least take the draw on the day.
‘We hit the bar and their keeper pulled off a few excellent saves. The penalty, I don`t think was a bad penalty – I`ve not seen the replay yet – but my view was it was another excellent save. But the fact is we`ve lost a game of football 2-1. The stats tell us we`ve dominated the game of football but we have to be more clinical and more ruthless.’
Warburton wasn’t much happier with the defending from the corner that led to their winning goal either.
‘It was a sloppy corner to give away, and there was no need to give it away. It was loose and then the player runs off and it was a really scrappy goal to give away. That can`t happen. We`ve had 15 corners and we have to punish that – we can`t be punished by a team that`s had one or two corners. Again, there are areas we have to work on and focus on.’
One positive from the day for the gaffer was the return of Nicky Law following injury and the performance he put in.
‘Nicky came on and made a real impression, likewise Dean Shiels came in and did really well. So it`s nice to see players return and we`ll hopefully have the likes of Gedion to come back after today`s injury. We`ll work hard in January, but the squad is good and we are still top of the league although we`d like to have a bigger gap. I think if we play like we did yesterday, more often than not we`ll get all three points.’
With Hibernian next up, he ended by saying.
‘It`s another game at a packed Ibrox, and we have a responsibility to them. Again, there was great support yesterday and they would have gone home disappointed. I have no doubts at all about the character in the squad though. They are angry and frustrated, but we trained well all week and going into the game you saw were a very good team. But we have to learn from that 15-20 minute spell – that can`t happen.’
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