Frustrated Rangers fans want results – not numbers game
RANGERS 1 Wallace (71) ROSS COUNTY 1 Schalk (18)
MARK WARBURTON played the numbers game after watching his side draw with Ross County for the third time this season.
The Rangers boss lamented that his men earned 15 corners and had 24 shots but only managed one goal.
There is, however, just one number that counts as far as the Rangers fans are concerned. It’s number two. They’d far rather finish top of the league but second place will do in their first season back in the top flight. Anything less just won’t be acceptable.
Another indifferent showing yesterday means the Ibrox club have only taken five points from a possible 15 in their last five Premiership matches.
They have now fallen into third place behind Aberdeen and the Dons have a game in hand.
The Rangers defence, which included Swiss international Philippe Senderos replacing the dropped Rob Kiernan to make only his third start for the club, again looked shaky.
Ross County striker Alex Schallk could easily have had a hat-trick.
However, Warburton preferred to concentrate on his side’s failure to hit the net despite putting the visitors under considerable pressure after the break.
He said: “I’ve been told we had 15 corners to one, there were 24 attempts but we scored one goal. “We have to look at that. “There were countless free-kicks but three or four of them went over the bar.
“That’s where we need that bit of quality – in the final third. We have to put the ball in the back of the net.”
Rangers had been expected to come flying out of the traps against their visitors from the Highlands.
There had been lots of talk about the need for togetherness as the Ibrox men set out to bounce back from their 4-1 thrashing by Hearts.
The last time they suffered a bad defeat at Tynecastle, they followed up with a 2- 0 home win against Aberdeen.
As so often happens, Rangers made a bright start to the first half and then slowly faded away.
Losing a goal to Alex Schalk didn’t help their already fragile confidence.
The manner in which they conceded just added to the atmosphere of discontent inside the stadium.
A long ball got past Lee Wallace, allowing Jim O’Brien to skip down the right wing and measure up a cross into the penalty area.
His pass was a good one but Schalk was allowed lots of room to cleverly clip the ball past Wes Foderingham.
It almost got even worse for Rangers a short time later when Foderingham and Hill got in a mess that led to the goalie sending a weak clearance to O’Brien.
He again set up Schalk but the Dutchnan fired wide.
Rangers tried to drag themselves back into the game but too many players wanted too long on the ball for there to be any great fluency in their play.
It was no great surprise when Rangers went in for half time with boos ringing in their ears.
Joe Garner, making a return after injuring his shoulder against Celtic, had three good chances before he was replaced, but couldn’t make them count.
Wallace brought Rangers back into the game when he fired home a close-range shot after running on to a Jon Toral pass.
Warburton’s men fought hard for a winner but found the Ross County defence difficult to break down.
Scott Fox produced a fantastic late save to make sure his side went back north with a point.
A cross smacked off Andrew Davies and the goalie leapt acrobatically to push it wide.
On-loan Spanish midfielder Toral admitted he has come from one type of stress to another.
Arsenal had previously sent him home to have a spell with Granada, where he again played in front of demanding fans.
He said: “I was fighting relegation back in Spain.
“The demands there were to get out of the bottom places.
“I played in front of crowds who were not happy with the way things were going. Here, the demands are to win every game.
“Sometimes the fans have shown they are not happy, which is different circumstances to Spain, but it’s just different types of pressures.”