The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Murty asks fans to cut Rangers some slack
Graeme Murty hopes the Ibrox faithful will get off his Rangers players’ backs after they finally chalked up three straight wins for the first time this year.
The Light Blues had to come from behind to beat Ross County 2-1 on Saturday. But that only came after an abject first-half display and the home crowd were not slow to vent their frustration after Craig Curran fired the Staggies ahead 10 minutes in.
There was more life about Rangers after the break, however, and they battled back to claim their long-awaited hat-trick of victories with goals from Alfredo Morelos and Danny Wilson.
That will have gone some way to cheering the Rangers support, who remain concerned after their board’s blundering attempt to lure Derek McInnes from Aberdeen fell apart on Thursday.
But Murty hopes the gritty nature of Saturday’s second half performance, combined with the display of character shown during their home and away wins over McInnes’s Dons last week, will at least convince the fans to cut his team some slack.
“It will (help the crowd keep faith with team) because the players have been questioned,” he said. “Everything about the club has been questioned recently by the fans.
“But the players managed to get over that hump and get a goal and if we had been more clinical we could have had more goals.
“We’ve shown we can handle it now, the boys can go on and get the win, and hopefully as well as the crowd getting a bit of faith, the players are starting to get a bit of faith in themselves, which is always critical, because we have a tough period coming up.”
● Kyle Lafferty netted the only goal against Motherwell as Hearts sealed their first victory at the revamped Tynecastle at the fourth attempt.
The striker capitalised on a slip by Cedric Kipre in the 39th minute to score as Hearts finally marked their new main stand with a win after three draws.
Motherwell failed to score for only the third time in the league this season after losing the league’s top goalscorer, Louis Moult, to a hamstring injury before the match.
● Eamonn Brophy hit a brace as Kilmarnock ended their winless run at Rugby Park in emphatic style with a 5-1 win over struggling Partick Thistle.
Killie had picked up just two points at home but a fine performance from Brophy saw that record come to an end.
Steve Clarke’s side cantered to a morale-boosting win that piles more pressure on Thistle, who remain bottom of the table.
Kris Boyd opened the scoring before a Chris Erskine equaliser, but Brophy struck twice and forced Niall Keown into an own goal before a Boyd penalty