PUMP UP THE VOLUME
Murty hopes Gers have plenty to shout about after tasty clash
MOVE over Jona Lewie and John and Yoko - the only mood music Graeme Murty wants to hear tonight is another roar of defiance from the Rangers dressing room.
The boys of the NYPD choir may be singing Galway Bay but Murty’s ear will be tuned for a tenor that signifies boldness and bravery in battle in the aftermath of what promises to be a feisty encounter at Easter Road tonight.
He heard it once before, 10 days ago at Pittodrie when his 10 men defeated Aberdeen 2-1, and he admits it’s the greatest noise ever, more fulfilling even than the sounds of satisfaction that came from his players after they took a point against all the odds at Celtic Park last season.
The Rangers board may be struggling to deliver their fans the Christmas present they need, a new manager to bring stability to a group that has been bruised and battered these last two seasons.
Murty has been doing his best to bring a calm authority to a squad that has just won three games in a row for the first time in a year and has managed to keep pace, of sorts, with Celtic at the top of the table.
The reigning champions remain five points ahead going into tonight’s games with the added bonus of a game in hand but Rangers are still better off than the same stage last December.
Back then they were also second after 17 games but eight points behind Brendan Rodgers’s boys who had played three games fewer and were already well on their way to six in a row.
Interim boss Murty hasn’t given up on his dreams of handing over the squad to a new boss with the title still in the balance, even if Celtic ultimately remain overwhelming favourites to make it seven on the trot.
However, he knows only a similar performance to the one they showed at Aberdeen will provoke the type of reaction he wants to see – and hear – deep in the bowels of Easter Road at 10pm.
He said: “We’ve taken some decent points from difficult venues and it gives the players good things to fall back on.
“The atmosphere in the Pittodrie dressing room was great in terms of the togetherness of the group and how they stood up to the challenge of going down to 10 men as well as the challenge of the environment and the speculation before the game.
“They just concentrated on themselves and I am going to urge them to do that again at Easter Road and not to get too caught up in the occasion.
“The atmosphere in the dressing room at Aberdeen was resilient. There was a bit of aggression there as well because we felt we were up against it a bit with the environment as well as the speculation surrounding the managerial post.
“The players also realised, after going down to 10 men, they had stood up to something and they could take positives from it. It was a belief ‘we can do this’ and if we can tap into it will be to the good.
“It was the most resonant dressing room I’ve been in at Rangers as everyone was involved in it and felt they contributed.
“We had 11 men when we drew at Celtic Park last season and the emotion of that was justification
GARY RALSTON