Four is not so sore for Paul’s boys
PAUL HARTLEY admitted he was pleased to leave Ibrox with ‘only’ a 4-0 defeat after his Cove Rangers players faced the toughest test of their careers.
Boss Hartley confessed he feared the worst when rampant Rangers went in four up at the break.
But the League One outfit got through the second period without any further damage and Hartley said: “It was a tough 90 minutes. Going into the second half 4-0 down, we said to the players to try to keep a clean sheet and credit to them, they did.
“Rangers were relentless. We didn’t do ourselves any favours in terms of the goals and were well beaten.
“Thankfully it was 4-0, to be quite honest. Going in 4-0 down, with the way they were playing, it was a tough game for our players.
“It’s the toughest match they’ll ever face and probably the best players they’ll ever face, so to come away with 4-0, I’m actually happy in the end.”
Hartley praised his players’ resilience but admitted the loss of two key men in Jamie Masson and Mitch Megginson to injury was as much of a blow as losing a match they were always unlikely to win.
He added: “Jamie’s really down. We’ll send him for a scan tomorrow and we’ll see where we are.
“We said we wanted to go through the game unscathed but we didn’t and we had Mitch Megginson coming off at half-time with a groin problem. So I’ll need to use the squad again on Tuesday.
“It’s a quick turnaround for us but there’s no point in moaning about it.
“We said to the players to try to put on a decent performance but we have to look at the bigger picture from now until the end of the season.
“We’ve got young players here and they’ll learn from that. They came up against top players.”