IBROX MEN PRIMED TO MAKE THE CUP COUNT
Assistant McAllister aiming to fulfil his Hampden dream
AS a young apprentice occasion.at Motherwell, Gary McAllister dreamt of the day he would walk out at Hampden on Scottish Cup final day. Forty years later and the Rangers assistant manager is still waiting for a taste of our game’s showpiece
McAllister left Fir Park for Leicester in 1984 and found fame, fortune and medals in later spells with Leeds United and Liverpool, where he established his enduring relationship with Steven Gerrard.
McAllister was the obvious choice as No2 when Gerrard accepted his first managerial position in 2018, but while highly competitive in Europe and by a clear stretch the country’s best team this season, Rangers have nonetheless been a huge letdown in domestic knock-out competitions over his three seasons in charge.
And when the door was opened to break Celtic’s four-season trophy stranglehold, Rangers merely matched the Parkhead side’s
League Cup defeat to Ross County by tumbling out at St Mirren in the next round.
The league was always the main prize, of course, but now that it’s done, McAllister wants the Rangers players to pursue their clear run at the cup with the focus and vigour that earned the Premiership title.
He said: ‘We are trying to emphasise to the players how important the Scottish Cup is.
‘I come from a generation, as a young player at Motherwell, where you always wanted to try and get to a Scottish Cup final. I’ve many memories of watching cup finals from north and south of the border, so we see this is very important.
‘We started the season in four competitions, three domestic and the Europa League.
‘We have managed to win one, had a great run in Europe and we want to do well in the Scottish Cup.
‘Our preparation and all our due diligence will be done to go deep into this competition. We want to get to Hampden.’
In Gerrard’s first season at the helm, Rangers exited both cups to Aberdeen, losing a League Cup semi-final at Hampden and then being eliminated from the Scottish Cup after a replay at Ibrox.
Last season offered a hard-luck story in the Betfred Cup final when a combination of goalkeeper Fraser Forster’s man-mountain heroics and Alfredo Morelos’s flaky finishing saw Celtic claim a triumph.
Defeat to Daniel Stendel’s Hearts in the Scottish Cup was arguably the worst result of all, with no redeeming features to a ragged Tynecastle performance against a team headed for relegation.
Lockdown arrived just in time to spare Gerrard’s players a further psychological blow against a Celtic team 13 points clear in the league and in relentless winning form.
The extended break afforded the manager the chance to address the mental issues that had seen the team collapse following the winter break. When football resumed in August, it was Celtic who returned in a fragile and effectively broken state while Rangers chalked up win after win in metronomic fashion.
The midweek loss to St Mirren just before Christmas suggested that some residual issues remained, but Rangers’ domestic form has been otherwise impeccable.
And McAllister claims to be stumped by this team’s cup trend. ‘There’s nothing that jumps to mind,’ he says. ‘On the day, it’s a one-off game and you’ve got to try and win it. On occasions we have just fallen a wee bit short.
‘This season, we have won the league nice and early and gone out of Europe, so we can really shift our attention.
‘Our major target now is to try and get a good run in the Scottish Cup. Our preparation and concentration goes onto that. There’s still five league games left and loads of records to go for there, too. That’s another target, so there’s still loads to play for in the last couple of months of the season.’
There’s no reason to expect today’s opponents Cove Rangers to pull off a shock. In Paul Hartley they have a bright manager but the former Scotland midfielder’s part-time players are still rusty after the lower leagues’ ten-week lay-off. Promoted to League One only a year ago, Cove are in the hunt for another promotion and Hartley has already stated that he must prioritise Tuesday’s league fixture at Clyde.
Rangers will dominate the ball and it will fall to Morelos, Ryan Kent and Ianis Hagi to unlock the door. ‘It’s been well-documented that we come up against, in modern words, a “low block’’,’ continues McAllister. ‘Our variation has been key, we’ve shown different ways of trying to beat teams who put loads of players behind the ball.
‘We’ve put in lots of work on the training ground in trying to find solutions and it’s paid off well.
‘The guys in the forward area of the pitch — whether it be Alfredo, Ryan, Kemar Roofe — each and every one of them has played a part in providing little moments in games which has enabled us to get goals and break teams down.’
During his playing career, McAllister won the old English First Division title in his first season with Leeds in 1992. A decade later, in a wonderful late career renaissance at Anfield, he enjoyed a treble success of League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup alongside Gerrard.
Ending Rangers’ ten-year wait for
‘WE HAVE WON THE LEAGUE NICE AND EARLY, SO WE CAN SHIFT OUR ATTENTION’
a league title was an altogether different experience — not least against the eerie backdrop of a pandemic — but the 56-year-old admits he has taken great pleasure in the club’s return to the summit.
‘There’s nothing that quite replaces winning something as a player, but the closest thing is getting over the line as a member of staff,’ he states. ‘That was fantastic.
‘I know how much hard work has gone in from the surrounding staff and the hours the manager is putting in, too, but we are there to try and help the players.
‘We want to see them win something. Winning the league’s been fantastic but, if we can go one better and try and get a really good run in this Scottish Cup and get to Hampden on the 22nd of May, that would be an added bonus.
‘It’s something we are going to emphasise to the players.’