Warburton urges his revived side to ‘keep pushing forward’
A 2-0 defeat by Hearts in November, in Robbie Neilson’s last match in charge before Ian Cathro took over as head coach, lifted the home side above the Ibrox club into second place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
Rangers rallied and have lost only once in eight games since – to rivals Celtic – to regain second spot behind the Parkhead club, who are runaway league leaders.
Warburton, whose side won 2-0 against Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday, put their last Tynecastle trip down as “a bad day at the office” as he looks to continue their good form.
He said: “We said straight away ‘no excuses’. The important thing was how we responded and we responded outstandingly well, beating Aberdeen, beating Hearts etc with very good performances and a good run of games.
“We go into the game on the back of a very good performance [at Motherwell], secondhalf especially, and we have to take that belief into the game, recognise the challenge and deliver the performance.
“We are getting towards the business end of the season and we have to keep on pushing forward.”
Warburton knows it could be a vastly different Hearts side to the one which hosted Rangers in November as Cathro has brought in nine new players during January. 0 New signing Jak Alnwick vows to challenge Wes Foderingham.
He said: “We are not sure tough challenge. But it is about what team we face. But us. If we can go there and we know they will be well deliver a performance we will organised by Ian and Austin be fine.” [Macphee, assistant coach] Warburton is looking for his and we have to expect a very latest signing, goalkeeperjak Alnwick, to challenge Wes Foderingham for the number one spot.
The Govan club recruited the 23-year-old goalkeeper from Port Vale on a three-and-ahalf year deal on Monday with Matt Gilks moving to Wigan Athletic.
Alnwick is Rangers’ third signing of the January window after Jon Toral and Emerson Hyndman signed loan deals from Arsenal and Bournemouth respectively.
Warburton said: “He has got to challenge. If a keeper comes in with a number two mentality you are in a weaker position.
“Wes has been outstanding this season. Matt had a number one mentality and Jak has to be the same.”
Alnwick, who started his career at Newcastle, promised Foderingham a challenge, saying: “I have confidence and I will push him” and insisted he did not need to take any counsel when he heard Rangers were interested.
He said: “I didn’t need to. I have known about them for so long. As a young kid you knew about Rangers and I knew I wanted to come here from the minute I found out.
“You can’t turn down a club like this. It is an unbelievable club. As soon you hear the name Rangers – it was a 2 Mark Warburton, supervising a training session at Auchenhowie yesterday, expects his team to face a vastly different Hearts team to the one which defeated Rangers at Tynecastle in November. no-brainer for me. It is a top club, you don’t need anyone to tell you how big it is, where they have been in the past and where they are working towards in the future.”
Reading have beaten Rangers for the services of 18-yearold West Ham defender Reece Oxford who has moved to the Madejski Stadium on loan until the end of the season.
The race to secure Rangers’ highly-rated teenager Billy Gilmour was still intense last night with Arsenal and Chelsea both intent on taking the 15-year-old schoolboy, an attacking midfielder, who will be eligible to sign when he is 16 during the summer.