BLAST OFF!
DORRANS: Double was the dream start for me
GRAHAM DoRRAns last night insisted scoring a double in his first competitive start for Rangers was a dream come true.
A £1.3million signing from norwich, the former scotland international opened the scoring after four minutes, his spot-kick in 58 minutes then securing a winning start to the Premiership season for Pedro Caixinha’s side.
Dorrans netted either side of Ben Heneghan’s first-half equaliser for Motherwell, and Rangers survived a brave fightback from the home side to secure the three points.
Admitting he couldn’t have had a better start to life as an Ibrox player, however, lifelong fan Dorrans said: ‘I was excited before the game. It was something I’ve always dreamed of since I was a kid.
‘But I’ve been a professional for a long time and I know what you need to do and what it takes to go out there.
‘We’ve got Jacko (Ryan Jack) in there, too, which gives me a bit of licence to get forward. I’ll be delighted if I can add some goals into my game, as well.’
Handed penalty responsibilities, the 30-year-old held off an attempt by Josh Windass to take the match-winning spot-kick after Louis Moult caught
defender Fabio Cardoso with an elbow. ‘I spoke to (assistant coach) Helder (Baptista) last week and he told me before the Watford game I’d be taking penalties,’ said Dorrans. ‘We’ve not had one since but we spoke before the match and he told me to take them. ‘Josh came up saying he wanted to take it but I was confident I would score, so I just took it. ‘It was our first competitive game together and we’ve got some new players. ‘We were under the cosh a little bit towards the end and we saw it out well. ‘But it’s something we will work on and as we gel as a team and as we get more games and sessions together, I’m sure that will come. ‘It was good personally to get a couple of goals but more importantly good to get off to a winning start. It was vital we got off to a good start and we did that. ‘The manager said during the week we need to just take every game as it comes. ‘That’s what we’ve been doing. Today was a tough game but we will move on now.’ Caixinha admitted there’s still room for Rangers improvement. Under pressure to get off to a strong start, however, he admitted the win was all that mattered. ‘It’s about winning,’ he said. ‘You might speak about the performance after you draw the game and say: “Great performance, bad result”. But we are result-orientated. ‘Sometimes we need to be humble and understand what is needed for us to keep the result. So that’s what we did. ‘If you ask me a different way and say: “Could we have a different history from this game?”. If we take our chances, if we control more of the game, I totally agree. We focus on the key points and we need to improve.’ Windass struck the woodwork twice in the first half as Rangers threatened to blow Motherwell away. Insisting the midfielder can still do more for the team, however, Caixinha added: ‘Normally you see the game on the brighter side. But did you see who didn’t get in the wall and we conceded the equaliser? Did you see who lost one ball in the second half and we almost got on transition? ‘You see things, I need to see others. Josh is a player that needs to have my confidence, and all of them have my confidence. But he needs to learn with the process. ‘This not only about the bright things. Sometimes you need to be switched on all the time.’ Missing from yesterday’s matchday squad, striker Martyn Waghorn looks poised for the Ibrox exit with Ipswich Town and Sunderland preparing to tender bids for a player entering the final year of his contract.