The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lundstram calls on Gers to turn focus to Champions League
John Lundstram called for Rangers fans to roar them towards the Champions League group stages against PSV at Ibrox tomorrow night.
The Gers midfielder was named sponsors’ man of the match in the comprehensive 4-0 home win over St Johnstone on Saturday which made it three cinch Premiership wins out of three for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side.
Next up is the visit of the Dutch side in the first leg of the Champions League play-offs and Lundstram is mindful of how the supporters helped the Light Blues get past Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League third qualifier last Tuesday night.
Rangers took the tie 3-2 on aggregate after a rousing 3-0 return leg win and Lundstram, ahead of PSV’s visit, said “It is another massive night for the club and we are going to need everyone behind us again.
“We need to produce the atmosphere like we did last week, again.
“It does give you another 10%, no doubt about it, it really motivates you... gives you that extra yard of pace so we definitely need that again.”
It was Rangers’ third win at Ibrox in a week following a 2-0 win over Kilmarnock last Saturday and the victory over USG on Tuesday night.
Attacker Malik Tillman gave the Light Blues the lead in the 32nd minute with a close-range header from a James Tavernier cross. Croatian Antonio Colak, who had scored in previous games against USG and Killie, added a second from 10 yards in the 62nd minute, with late goals by substitutes Scott Arfield and Tom Lawrence putting a sheen on the scoreline.
Lundstram believes each game is bringing improvement to a strong squad.
He said: “I was really happy. Performance-wise it was better than last week against Killie.
“You can see it starting to click a bit better now. We have started to get going and hopefully we can carry it forward.
“The quality of the squad is amazing. The people coming on the pitch could easily start the game.
“Credit to the squad that the manager has put together that we can strengthen rather than weaken when we make substitutions.
“Training is high quality intensity-wise and there’s a lot of leaders in the group as well which should stand us in good stead.”
It was a difficult afternoon for Saints but manager Callum Davidson said: “I’m disappointed for the lads but we can take positives from it and see improvements from the start of the season.
“It’s a new build, a new team and there are a lot of good things there.”