BEST OF THE SEASON
Warbs blanks Barton questions but hails Gers display in Ross County stalemate booed by home fans...
Mark Warburton described Rangers’ performance as their BEST of the season – despite being held to an Ibrox stalemate by Ross County.
The Ibrox boss refused to comment on Joey’s Barton’s banishment but praised
his players after they were jeered off by a section of the crowd. Gers have now won just two of their opening six league games, scoring only seven goals, and the draw saw them slip to fourth.
Warburton had vowed to use criticism from last week’s 5-1 Old Firm defeat to fire his players up – but it wasn’t enough to get a victory against the Staggies on their first visit to Ibrox.
However, the Englishman claimed Gers put in a good display with Barton out of the side for the first time in the league this season.
Warburton, who cut short his after-match press conference after being angered at questions about the midfielder, said: “That’s our best 90- minute performance of the season.
“I’m never happy about dropping two points at home but I’m very pleased with the performance.
“We created a lot of chances and nine times out of 10 we will score two, three goals. I would be a lot more frustrated talking to you if we hadn’t created chances.
“They cleared enough off the line and the ball hit every bit of the goalkeeper’s body. We played with a lot more energy, dynamism, tempo and quality.
“We wanted to go back to basics. I always compare it to the money markets and when you lose a lot of money on one day you don’t get it all back the following day.
“You build slowly. We said to the players to move the ball quickly, to show an energy and desire to get bodies forward.
“We created more than enough chances to win two or three games. We are far happier as a dressing room with the performance.
“The lads trained well after a frustrating week, for obvious reasons.”
Warburton is now set for
talks with Barton tomorrow after the controversial star was ordered away from the club following a training ground bust-up.
Barton was interviewed on radio, claiming he had “nothing to apologise for” and saying he found the decision to banish him as “strange”.
But the Gers boss was ti g h t - l i p p e d on the 34- year- old’s future. He said: “We won’t make any comment on any player when there is an internal matter that’s being dealt with by the club.
“How much did it affect us? Not at all. That’s part of the challenges. If you work on a building site and bricks don’t turn up you’ve got a problem. So it’s just another matter that you deal with.
“It’s part of the challenges of day-to-day working life.”
When pressed on Barton’s ban, he said: “You can keep asking questions but all I’ll do is close the interview.
“It’s your call. But there are no more answers or comment on Joey Barton.”
Warburton then ended the press conference but County boss Jim McIntyre claimed the Barton row and last week’s Old Firm defeat for Gers had made life more difficult for his Staggies.
He said: “It’s bad enough coming off the back of an Old Firm defeat but with what has gone on during the week it would have given them motivation.
“We knew we were going to face a side with a real point to prove.”
McIntyre lost Liam Boyce to injury before the game while Dutch striker Alex Schalk suffered ligament damage during the game.
And the County boss admitted: “At times it was desperate for us. We had to hang in and graft.”