Darren says Rangers are simply ‘the better team’
THE aggregate scoreline at Palmerston Park across two games this season reads: Queen of the South 5 Rangers 0. If that hardly makes for inspiring reading for nervy fans of the Ibrox club, Darren McGregor insists he is in no doubt as to who is the better team as the two rivals prepare to go head to head in Dumfries again this weekend.
The Rangers defender admits a tough task lies in wait on the plastic pitch at Palmerston when Stuart McCall takes his side south for the Premiership play-off quarter-final first leg tomorrow evening.
The 29-year- old is an admirer of Queens as a football team and he feels James Fowler’s men have not received the acclaim they deserve for their achievements in pipping Falkirk to finish fourth in the Championship; just seven points behind Rangers.
But the former Cowdenbeath and St Mirren centre- half believes t hat, after t wo underwhelming displays at Palmerston, his team-mates are finally ready to stand up and be counted in the biggest game of their season to date.
‘We’re a better team than them — that’s j ust my perspective,’ said McGregor (right).
‘We’ve maybe not proved that (this season) so i t’s maybe a bit rich for me to sit here and say that.
‘Queens don’t get as much credit as they deserve. But I think their manager (James Fowler) has just won Manager of t he Month, so he’s done really well. They have a tight-knit group, they have pace up front and they have players who like to defend at the back.
‘ They have a good balance and they play well at Palmerston. It’s a very difficult venue to go to and I think in our past two games down there we’ve not really acquitted ourselves the way we would have wanted to. We are well aware of that. But I do genuinely think going down there — if we take bits from the Hearts game last weekend and maybe from other games that we’ve hit top gear in — we should be fine.’ Rangers lost 2-0 at Palmerston in December, hours after news emerged t hat manager Ally McCoist had handed in notice of his intention to resign. Despite presiding over an improvement in performances, McCall fared worse l ast month in Dumfries as Rangers wer e shot down 3-0. A l ot had been made of the plastic pitch unnerving Rangers, but McCall this week claimed his side won’t face a psychological barrier when they return south this weekend.
The superstitious Rangers boss did, however, concede that his players won’t train on their own plastic pitch at Murray Park as they did before their April visit to Palmerston; the only loss in McCall’s 11-game tenure.
And Queens striker Gavin Reilly this week insisted that the mere fact Rangers are talking publicly about their issue means the plastic pitch is in their heads.
Yet while McGregor conceded the surface gives Fowler’s men a slight edge, he backed his team-mates to carve out a win to boost their chances of a semi-final meeting with Hibs later this month. And he admits a draw would not be a disaster.
‘There’s a lot made of the surface and I’m not going to sit here and say it’s definitely the surface (that’s to blame for Rangers losing),’ he continued.
‘I think anybody that plays football knows that grass and Astroturf are different. That’s not to say they are far superior and that we, going down there, are unable to play on it.
‘It’s just one of these things. They will have a slight edge but that edge shouldn’t matter in terms of how the game is played.
‘They are just really good at home and their fans get behind them. They have good players in good areas. It’s something we are well aware of and we’re well aware in the last two games we’ve not scored and they have scored two and three respectively.
‘It’s up to us to go down there and, when it matters, put in a performance. For me, the next six games are like a mini-league in itself.
‘We are going down there with the mindset to win but, as a lot of people know, a draw and then a win at Ibrox would be enough so, for us, we know what we need to do. It’s just about executing that game plan on Saturday.’