Stevie backs Gers to shut up Strach

GARY RALSTON IN AUSTRIA

g.ralston@dailyrecord.co.uk remained calm and humble when we went top of the league so after a couple of bad results I’m not going to panic and think everything is not right. We just need to focus on our football. The Rapid match is huge.

“We responded to disappointment before and that’s what you have to do. I don’t think you need to listen to external opinions, just focus on the next game plan, the next challenge and that is Rapid.

“It will be a tough game for us on what looks like it is going to be a difficult pitch. But we have shown before that when the challenge is 50-50, or we are underdogs, that we have responded really well.”

Allegations of mental frailty seem over the top when a European record so far this season of 13 games played and just one defeat is accounted for.

But 17 points dropped in a league campaign that’s just 16 games old suggests Strach may have a point when it comes to breaking down stubborn Scottish defences.

For the most part, Rangers have looked more comfortable in games in which their opponents have gone toe to toe and that’s why Gerrard is relishing the opportunity to face Rapid, who are not without their own domestic woes.

They currently sit eighth in the 12 team Austrian league, 25 points off leaders Red Bull Salzburg, but Gerrard knows they won’t be cowed in front of their own fan base, even though Rangers will have at least 2,500 fans inside the Allianz Stadion.

He said: “We haven’t shown the true Rangers in our last two performances, nor the standards we’ve set since the start of the season.

“However, this is a different game, a different style. We believe Rapid will come out and attack us and we’re expecting a positive performance with a vocal fan base behind them.

“We don’t expect them to sit deep and contain and look to spoil like