CUP SUCCESS WOULD USHER IN ‘NEW ERA’
GRAEME MURTY last night predicted Rangers winning the Scottish Cup this season would be the “launch pad” for the club to return to winning trophies on a regular basis.
The 2011 Premier League title, won under Walter Smith, was the last time any major silverware was held inside Ibrox, which was clinched a year before the club was placed into liquidation.
Murty’s Rangers travel to Somerset Park today and will face League 1 Ayr United for what promises to be a testing tie for the Premiership side.
The manager knows what it would mean if he could lead the club to silverware at Hampden Park in May and he believes it would kick-start a new era in Rangers’ history.
He said: “Collectively, winning a trophy would mean a great, great deal but I can’t actually quantify it. It’s not the be-all and end-all but it would be a really important, a marker on our path to where we want to get to.
“This club has been built on winning things. When we do win something again, it will be a
really important marker for us to say ‘that’s where we need to be’ and ‘that’s where we’re going from’.
“We could actually move forward from there. Rather than it be a highlight, it can be a starting point or a launch pad for us to move forward on to bigger and better things.
“It’s about the club improving and evolving and getting back to where we need to be. It has taken a long time to get to where we are and the fans have been incredibly patient with us and patient with the process.
“We’re still a part of that process to get this club back to the stature that it had in the past. We want to get there again. We understand it’s not going to happen overnight but when we win our next trophy there is going to be a massive outpouring.”
Murty revealed that Josh Windass had apologised for his celebration of holding a finger up to his mouth, a gesture seen as quietening his critics among the Rangers support, after scoring against Partick Thistle on Tuesday night.
But yesterday, during an interview with Sky Sports News, the midfielder seemed to insist he had done nothing wrong.
He said: “There was no real reason or malice in the celebration, it was just a bit of an instinct after I’ve scored.
“I’ve seen reports saying on social media he was getting abuse but it was nothing to do with that it was just how I was playing in the game until that point I was feeling a bit frustrated and I’ve just reacted in maybe the wrong way but that happens some times in football.
“I forgot about it straight away so it’s just other people bringing it up to me so I’ll just let them talk about it and I’ll concentrate on myself.”
Murty felt the need to talk to Windass who is likely to start against Ayr United in the Scottish Cup tomorrow afternoon. The manager hoped a lesson had been learned.
Murty said: “If Josh scores a goal on Sunday, if indeed I select him, and 6500 Rangers fans go ‘Shhhhhh’ to him would he just have to accept that? Yeah, he would.”