Knee knock scan sweat for Darren
DUNDEE skipper Darren O’Dea will undergo a scan on his inured knee today to assess any damage.
The Irish defender limped off after 54 minutes of Saturday’s 3-0 Premiership defeat at Hamilton.
O’Dea had only just returned from suspension after missing out on the midweek Betfred Cup victory over Dundee United to play at the Superseal Stadium.
And the ex-Celtic centreback admitted he wanted to play on against Accies but heeded the advice of the Dundee medical team in order to avoid the risk of any further injury.
O’Dea said: “I’ll get a scan on the knee and see how it is. The good thing is that I wanted to play on but the physio thought differently.
“He’s good at what he does so I trust him.” DANNY WILSON was never fooled into thinking Rangers were the finished article so won’t be fazed at falling to Hibs.
The feelgood factor that had been building at Ibrox after the shock of their Euro exit to Progres Niederkorn has been put on hold again after a controversial 90 minutes against the Championship winners.
Confidence was high after an opening-day Premiership win at Motherwell last weekend was followed by a 6-0 rout of Dunfermline in the Betfred Cup in midweek.
But the morale of Pedro Caixinho’s squad has taken a knock after their 3-2 loss in only their second league match that already leaves them trailing Neil Lennon’s squad, St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Celtic in the table.
Rangers take on Hearts at Ibrox next week and veteran frontman Kenny Miller reckons they must tighten up all over the park if they are to build a solid foundation for the months ahead.
And Wilson has called on his team-mates to learn fast and deliver. He said: “I agree with Kenny, we need to become a team but we are still in the early phases of it.
“We’ve had a couple of good results and everyone was thinking, ‘That’s it, we’re ready to crack on’. But we know ourselves the work needs to be done and we’ll look to put that right in training next week.
“This is just one defeat and hopefully we can nip it in the bud and won’t have too many more.
“It’s still early days in terms of the season. We may have lost to Hibs and gone down to 10 men but up until that point when Ryan Jack was sent off I thought we looked pretty good.
“Obviously we had to change formation and chase the game a wee bit going into the second half after going 2-1 down but we’ll move forward from this, of that I have no doubt.
“We started well and the sending off changed the game. Hibs were just coming into it and it looked as if it was going to be a good game – for the neutral, anyway.
“There was ebb and flow either way and a bit of niggle but these things happen and we unfortunately lost.
“We’re disappointed with that but there’s still plenty of time to resurrect the rest of the season. The new players,
particularly those from abroad, are battling hard and undoubtedly they are adapting. It won’t just happen straight away. The quicker the better but they will do it.
“We want to be an attacking team, we don’t just want to sit off and be punished with the kind of move that led to the Hibs equaliser.
“We won’t dwell on it too much. We will try to tighten up but we’re not going to make wholesale changes and sit with every man behind the ball and hope to hit teams on the counter attack.
“Playing at Ibrox we have to look to take the ball and we have to try to win every game.”
Wilson, 25, sat out the last few weeks of last season with a knee ligament injury and missed the club’s disastrous Europa League campaign. But he’s almost back to full fitness.
The former Scotland star has lost his place in the centre of defence to Bruno Alves and Fabio Cardoso. But Caixinha rates him highly and the ex-Liverpool and Hearts defender knows his time will come.
Indeed, he made a decent contribution in the second half against Hibs when Rangers switched to three at the back and he broke forward down the left to send over the cross met by James Tavernier for the second goal, which threw their side a late lifeline.
Wilson added: “I missed seven weeks of pre-season with my knee injury so I’m playing catch up in terms of general fitness, as well as match fitness.
“Unusually for a defender I’ve come on in the first three games of the season as a sub. It’s not the ideal position for me as I’d obviously prefer to start but I have to give respect to the two guys who are playing.
“They are in possession of the jersey and it’s up to me to try to move them and I’ll do everything I can on a daily basis to do so.”
Wilson was given a close-up view as a sub of the animosity between warring dugouts but he insists he was in the dark about Jack’s dismissal.
He added: “I didn’t get a view because the fourth official was in my line of sight. There were tackles being put about by both teams. These things happen, you want a game that’s highly competitive and that’s what it was out there.
“Unfortunately for us, we picked up the red card and it cost us.
“It was a good game, with an added edge to it. I’d rather have been on the pitch in the first half than in the dugout. I was fortunate to get on in the second half but couldn’t quite do enough to turn the tide.”