St Johnstone 1 Rangers 4 /Murty’s men flatten Saints
Rangers boss Graeme Murty believes the progress being made by his team was reflected by the fact the dressing room was “flat” after last night’s 4-1 victory over St Johnstone in Perth, writes Andrew Smith.
The win was the Ibrox side’s fifth in a row and took them to within six points of Premiership leaders Celtic, who play Dundee at home tonight.
Clinical Rangers were 4-0 up after 56 minutes at Mcdiarmid Park but Murty insisted his players were unhappy at how the final half-hour played out.
He said: “They felt they weren’t of the required standard, weren’t of the standards that they’ve set.
“I’ve had to work quite hard at getting them up and not being down on themselves. That is indicative of the culture that we’re trying to set and the
standards that they’ve set for one another. I had a little go at them. I questioned whether they would have taken 4-1 before and they said yes so I asked what they were moaning about. Do you think we can get better? They said yes but I said to leave it there, not be too down, and move forward.
“This team is improving. They are getting better, they are demanding more of one another, but they are doing it in a positive way which is really pleasing for me. I thought our play at time was really pleasing and really challenging for our opponents to try and stop.”
Rangerswingerjamiemurphy hobbled off in the 77th minute and there seemed some suggestion he indicat- ed to the bench he was concerned as to a possible fracture in his toe.
The injury could threaten his participation in Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarterfinal against Falkirk, and the league derby against Celtic a week later.
“He was in a bit of pain and he was a bit frustrated and a bit angry with some of the tackles that he had,” said Murty. “But when you are an influential player and you hold onto the ball as he does people are going to want to be robust and stop you playing. It is part of the game. We have to assess his foot and then we will go from there.
“I don’t want to jinx anything by saying how bad it might be. We will assess it, we will try and be calm about it and we will make sure that he will get the requisite care.”