THE QUIET REVELATION
No drama, fuss or flare-ups but Holt might just be the man who can help Rangers rediscover their rhythm and turn their toiling season around
AT THE end of the week in which problem team-mate Joey Barton has been stirring and starring in interviews, Jason Holt is batting back questions on the Aberdeen game with inoffensive and anodyne answers simply because he prefers to express himself by playing football.
To pinch an autobiography title there is, indeed, ‘No Nonsense’ surrounding Holt. Nor is there aggravation, hassle, controversy, negativity. He barely has a quotable sentence in him, either.
Attempts last season to try and tease a withering word out about Robbie Neilson’s decision to dispense with his services were a waste of time. There could not be a greater contrast to Barton’s style of self-promotion and classless trash talk of opponents than the 23-year-old former Hearts midfielder.
What a delight it must be, in the wake of recent raucous events, for manager and colleagues to have the diminutive and dynamic midfielder back from injury and quietly grafting away for the good of the Rangers group. Holt returned with the opening goal and 45 minutes of the 5-0 drubbing of Queen of the South on Tuesday night.
For a fiery fixture at Pittodrie that will test how well Rangers have responded to their dispiriting defeat at Celtic Park and the ensuing uproar brought into their lives by Barton, Holt’s industrious application will be most appreciated. Where the sagas over Barton have been tiresome, here now comes Holt the tireless.
Everything that was good about Rangers of last season could be found in Holt. He typified the work ethic at play while featuring in 45 of 50 Rangers games, scoring 12 goals and collecting two winners medals.
He was quick, young, energetic, popular, value-for-money labour and arrived with a point to prove after being allowed to leave Tynecastle initially on loan to Sheffield United in League One then to a trial at Ibrox. He provided rather than drained energy from the place and he could keep the ball at Rangers’ feet.
With his incisive touch, Holt could help Rangers rediscover the killer final ball in the last third, lamented as lost in the early weeks of the season by Mark Warburton after disappointing draws with Hamilton, Kilmarnock and Ross County.
‘We never doubted for one second how much we would miss Jason when he was out and that’s been proven now that he’s back,’ said Warburton. ‘We’ve seen him provide that killer ball. He’s constantly moving. He’s always creating space, always offering angles and options. That’s the sign of a good quality player.
‘We’ve got some really good players in the squad but he’s one of those that provides a different perspective to our game. Jason gives you energy. He works so hard on and off the ball, he gets forward beyond the striker and he scores goals. He was a real miss when he was out. You look at his stats — Jason covers 13-14km a game.
‘A lot of coaches look at the combined kilometres covered in their team and compare. It’s not always a good one because, if you’ve good possession of the ball, then the other team is running harder than you very often. But you can still take things from it. Those are (English) Premier League stats in terms of distance covered by Jason.’
Holt and the suspended Barton have not shared the same stage as Rangers players. They may never do so depending on the outcome of disciplinary issues. They passed each other by in a triple substitution on 62 minutes as Peterhead were brushed aside in a Betfred Cup group game on August 9.
After that, Holt was hampered by an ankle injury and Rangers were hindered by displays worryingly ponderous in comparison to the vibrant work of last season as Barton and Niko Kranjcar toiled to find their feet and requisite fitness in the Scottish game.
Lee Wallace speaks of ‘a different dynamic’ when Holt is in the side. ‘When Jason is in the team, I feel there is a real sense that he makes everybody better with everything he does,’ said the Rangers skipper. ‘We are blessed to have him back’. Just don’t expect Holt to provide a ringing endorsement of his own abilities.
For much of the summer, the midfield area where Holt and Andy Halliday excelled last season was under the greatest threat from Warburton’s recruitment drive as Barton, Kranjcar, Jordan Rossiter, Matt Crooks and Josh Windass arrived to add to the competition provided by the mid-season capture of Harry Forrester. Then his battle for a place was plagued by injury.
‘For me it was all about hard work,’ stated Holt. ‘It’s never good to be injured at the start of the season but now I’m back in and looking to keep my place. I just wanted to get back in training and impress the gaffer.
‘I just concentrated on myself, did my best to get into the team and now it’s up to me to keep the jersey. It’s always nice to get a goal, my first of the season, and I’m looking to build on that.
‘I had a bit of tightness in my quad against Queens after being out for a while but I’m fine. In respect of the goal-scoring the other night, it probably was something more like last season’s form from us. We want to take that into Sunday.’
That was an overdue return to potency with another of last season’s stalwarts who has suffered from injury, Martyn Waghorn, weighing in with a second-half hat-trick. All of which makes Warburton’s Rangers look stronger and better equipped to handle the peculiarities of Pittodrie than they did the Parkhead baptism of fire earlier in the month.
Holt, unbeaten as a Hearts player in three trips to Aberdeen, said: ‘We were all really disappointed with the Old Firm result but we’re looking to put that behind us.
‘We’ve had a good week, with the result on Tuesday, and are looking to build on the performance and keep getting the results.
‘We have big, difficult games like this coming up but we go there with confidence. We have to keep our performance levels high. Winning 5-0 in midweek can only be good for our confidence.
‘We’ll have to be at our best to get something out of the game. It’s one myself and the rest of the squad will relish. It will be the first experience for a lot of the players taking part in this game and we’ve been made well aware of the atmosphere to expect. But we prepare as usual, work hard and treat it like another game.’
These are not the type of startling revelations capable of filling a spot in a best seller. But, right now, operating without fuss in Holt fashion and going back to the basics that served them so well might just be what Rangers need to turn the page on their season to a more harmonious chapter.