Old Firm hurt
YOUNG BOYS v RANGERS GAVIN BERRY TONIGHT,
CONNOR GOLDSON has spoken of his hurt at his Old Firm blunder and how Rangers dug deep to bounce back and win five on the spin after that setback.
The Englishman held his hands up after his mistake gifted Celtic the opening goal of a comfortable 2-0 derby win at Ibrox for the Light Blues’ only loss of the season.
Goldson admitted he was on a downer as he stewed on his error during the international break but vowed to put it behind him when domestic action returned.
And Gers have since gone on to beat Livingston twice – including one in the Betfred Cup to book a semi-final place – St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Feyenoord in their Europa League Group G opener.
Goldson has now set his sights on two more positive results going into the next international break starting with Young Boys in Switzerland tonight followed by the visit of Hamilton to Ibrox on Sunday.
Asked how he felt about his derby mistake the 26-year-old former Brighton ace said: “It hurt. It hurt me as an individual and us as a team.
“For a few days after I was around my family. I knew I made a mistake and it’s not what you want to do in a big game. I held my hands up to the team at the time.
“As a footballer I don’t think you are going to be perfect. You move on, you try and get to the next game and do as well as you can.
“I just try and be like that all the time. I try and move on as quickly as I can because at this club there is always another game soon which you need to prepare for and get your head right for.
“We had to move on from it quickly and go into this group of games trying to take maximum points. After the Celtic match we looked at this group of fixtures before the next international break and knew we had to pick up the best results we could.
“I feel like we get better and better over the month. Obviously on the back of an Old Firm defeat,your next few fixtures are tough.
“Mentally you know you need to win games. You know there’s a lot of expectation and demands.
“But we’ve coped with it well and sport@dailyrecord.co.uk got good results. We just need to keep moving forward and keep winning football games.”
Gerrard will take charge of his 24th game in Europe as Gers boss in the Swiss capital tonight with just two defeats in an impressive record.
Goldson is the only player to have featured in every one of those fixtures and hopes to continue that good run under his gaffer.
Rangers haven’t won an away fixture in the group stage of a European competition since a shock 3-0 Champions League win over Lyon almost 12 years ago.
A win in Bern tonight wouldn’t
CONNOR GOLDSON AIMS TO PUT ERROR BEHIND HIM
compare to that but it would still be huge against a Young Boys side who haven’t lost on home soil since a 3-2 defeat to Luzern almost a year ago.
And Goldson said: “We are more suited to Europe than domestic football in terms of we can play our pressing game. When we face a lot of the foreign teams we go into the games as the underdogs.
“That gives us a chance to press. At home in the league it is harder to do that when we have more of the ball. We have shown we can play on a low block and play on the counter.
“Last year we put in good performances away from home. We didn’t get the win but we came close and put in some good displays.
“This is a new group and a new campaign and after starting with three points we feel we can get another three.
“It would be a massive statement of intent if we could win in Bern. Last year Europe was new to us but we still equipped ourselves well.
“I knew I was the only player this year who has played in all the European games but I didn’t realise I was the only one from the past two seasons.
“It’s nice as I came to this football