Garner hopes Murty gets a first-team role in new regime
JUST another run-of-the-mill day at Ibrox. Mike Ashley is linked with a fresh £30m takeover of the club, in a bid to settle his feud with Dave King once and for all. Up in the TV gantry, bona fide club legend Walter Smith casts aspersions over the choice of little-known Al-Gharafa boss Pedro Caixinha for their head coach, insisting that if it was up to him he would prefer Derek McInnes. Somewhere in a boardroom south of the border, Southampton’s scouting guru Ross Wilson mulls over an improved offer to become the club’s director of football.
And on the field, Graeme Murty sees out what is probably his last match as interim manager with a riotous 6-0 rout of Hamilton Accies. While the win booked the club’s place in the last four of the William Hill Scottish Cup for the third time in four years, it will go down in future as much for a hat-trick of controversial decisions by referee John Beaton rather than the trio of goals grabbed on the day by Joe Garner. As I was saying, just another run-of-the-mill day at Ibrox.
If this was Murty’s last match in charge – with Caixinha looking to bring his own coaching staff with him from Qatar he appears likely to revert to his previous post as the club’s Under-20 coach – he can take his leave with his head held high.
Should Rangers go on to lift this trophy, the first major one since the club’s rebirth in the lower divisions, the former Scotland full back will deserve the credit for negotiating them beyond two rounds of this competition. He has done his best amid difficult, uncertain circumstances, learned plenty about himself and his players in the process, and leaves the first team after back-toback wins, arguably better off than he found it. On Saturday, one of the decisions which paid dividends was his brave call to remove Kenny Miller from the fray for Joe Garner at half-time.
Striker Martyn Waghorn made light of the continuing uncertainty of the club’s ongoing quest for stability in their football department. His opening goal on Saturday was his fourth goal in five games, and with Joe Garner suspended for Sunday’s Old Firm match, he seems almost certain to start his first match against Celtic.
“We’ve been told the situation,” the striker said. “We are in constant contact. Skip [Lee Wallace] gets dialogue from the board, and Murts is doing a great job with the boys, rallying them round, and that has shown in the last couple of weeks. He’s full of energy, he is enthusiastic on the sidelines and he’s brought a lot of energy and self-belief into the players. Winning games obviously helps the situation and obviously helps the board as well.”
Waghorn would prefer that room be found for his old Charlton team-mate Murty among the first-team coaching group, even if such an outcome now seems unlikely. “I’ve known him for a long time and it would be nice if he gets the chance but hopefully he stays in and around the squad – that would be good for the boys,” he said. “For myself it’s the run of the games I’ve personally been looking for.”
Caixinha has been portrayed in some quarters as the Portuguese James Bond and a bull-fighting matador but on Saturday it was Hamilton who were left seeing red and feeling that the decisions of John Beaton and his officiating team were a load of bull.
Not only did they feel that Garner should never have been allowed to complete his hat-trick after a tackle on Dougie Imrie which the victim felt belonged in a UFC cage rather than a football field, Rakish Bingham was appalled by the non-award of a clear straight red card when Wes Foderingham handled the ball outside his penalty box. To add insult to injury, the Englishman also felt that the spot kick which got Rangers started – Waghorn finished from 12 yards after Grant Gillespie was deemed to have clipped Jon Toral – shouldn’t have been given either.
“These big decisions can cost you in games like this,” said Bingham. “They didn’t give me a reason. I was speaking to the linesman and he just shook his head and said no and the referee just said get on with it. But he [Foderingham] made contact with his hands and the whole ball outside of the box and carried it inside the box. I don’t know if my position has maybe blinded his view, but it seemed pretty obvious that he was outside, in my eyes. If it’s a red card then it’s a completely different game, 11 against ten.”
To be fair, from then on Hamilton were the architects of their own downfall. Having successfully defended 21 corners during their 1-0 midweek league win against Aberdeen, they lost three goals – to Garner, Toral and Clint Hill during the second period – from identical Barrie McKay corners. An errant backpass from Grant Gillespie gave Garner another and the former Preston man earned the match ball after more good work down the left from McKay. “It’s devastating because we did really well in midweek when we were defending, especially from set-pieces,” said Bingham. “But today we let ourselves down a bit.”