No cold start to title challenge this year for Rangers after cup victory
COMING off the festive Old Firm high and with Premier League goal machine Jermain Defoe and Ibrox idol Steven Davis in for first starts, Rangers kicked off the second half of last season with heightened hopes of a title challenge.
Twelve minutes into the Rugby Park action, Defoe’s obligatory debut goal sent those expectations soaring.
But by the end of the evening, hosts Kilmarnock had come back to win 2-1 and were above them in the table, and Celtic three points clear of their bitter rivals with a game in hand.
The faltering step on return to action from the winter break, a knock administered by pre-contract capture
Jordan Jones striking the winner, was one Rangers never recovered from.
Steven Gerrard and his staff have learned many lessons from season one in Scotland, ticking off a succession of fixes so far this term. The approach to the January restart can be marked down as another.
A late and unexpected postponement of the Scottish Cup fourth-round tie at Cowdenbeath a year ago meant Gerrard’s players went into a searching midweek Ayrshire test cold.
This time, a home draw against Stranraer ensured there would be no call-off and, while Gerrard gave fringe players a chance, there were a core of A-listers in the line-up that prevailed 2-0 who will benefit for the run-out ahead of St Mirren’s visit on Wednesday.
They include scorers Defoe, who will start in place of the suspended Alfredo Morelos again. Scott Arfield, Ryan Jack, Nikola Katic and Davis also blew away any remaining cobwebs from the shutdown.
That issue had already been addressed in Dubai, however, with a friendly against Lokomotiv Tashkent.
And the finishing touches were put on the conditioning ahead of a packed schedule thanks to a bounce game against Queen of the South yesterday.
‘We are glad the Stranraer game went ahead as we felt we missed this type of game last year, when the Cowdenbeath game was called off due to the weather,’ explained Gerrard.
‘It is the reason we had Queen of the South in a bounce game and had the game in Dubai. We wanted to get in our rhythm quicker than we did
last year. Players will get minutes in their legs before they go into some real tough games, starting with St Mirren.
‘We hope we benefit more from Dubai and these games as we never had that luxury last season.
‘We weren’t expecting (Cowdenbeath) to be called off. We were on our way and we hoped it would go ahead.
‘If it had, we would probably have been in better shape going to Kilmarnock. You try and learn your lessons. That is why we have put more football in front of the players before St Mirren.
‘If we have any ambitions on having a successful season, we need to be ready.’
Rangers, with a game in hand at home to St Johnstone up their sleeve, host Saints with a two-point deficit to leaders Celtic.
This time it is the champions who head down the M77 to face Killie, under new boss Alex Dyer, who are not the same force as they were during Steve Clarke’s reign.
While last season’s thirdplaced team went backwards, Gerrard acknowledges improvement in Rangers and by Celtic, who are 10 points better off after 20 games this season than last under Brendan Rodgers.
And so begins the second half of a proper ding-dong fight to the Ladbrokes Premiership crown.
‘We have improved but the bar has been raised,’ stated Gerrard. ‘We don’t have room for many mistakes moving forward.
‘The consistency of ourselves and Celtic, I don’t see much changing. We are going to have to be on it and continue to be hungry and consistent.
‘Both teams, where we sit right now, have two hectic fixtures schedules. This could be a case of who makes the least mistakes has the more successful end to the season.’