The Sunday Post (Newcastle)

Boos ring out as Gers fans expect wins

- By Brian Fowlie sport@sundaypost.com

MARK WARBURTON admitted he understood why the Rangers fans booed his team off at Ibrox.

The home fans showed their displeasur­e at half-time and fulltime after watching their favourites draw 1-1 with Ross County.

It was the third time the Light Blues have drawn with the Staggies this season and leaves them having won only 12 of their 24 league matches this term.

Aberdeen have leapfrogge­d Rangers into second place. The Dons have a vastly superior goal difference – plus 20 compared to plus six – having played a game less.

It’s all adding up to increasing discontent amongst the Rangers’ support.

They were shocked by the midweek 4-1 thrashing by Hearts and frustrated by the failure to bounce back from that against Ross County.

Warburton said: “They expect Rangers to win at home.

“I don’t think they can accuse the players of not giving everything in the second half. There was wave after wave of going forward.

“The support was very good. They’re going to boo, they expect Rangers to win at home.”

The Rangers boss refused to deal with the threat coming from Aberdeen. He said: “I think we just have to focus on Rangers.

“We have to think they’re going to win every game, same with Hearts.

“We look forward to the cup game next week then Dundee and Inverness, where we’ve won this season and hope to repeat that.”

Rangers decided to drop underfire centre-half Rob Kiernan and replaced him with 31-year-old Philippe Senderos.

That meant the centre-back pairing of Senderos and Clint Hill had a combined age of 69.

Ross County scorer Alex Schalk revealed they were delighted to face two more mature defenders.

He said: “When we saw their team-sheet we saw their centreback­s and knew that was where we had to get our opportunit­ies.

“My main strength is my pace and that’s how we scored the goal.

“The way they played their first half wasn’t like Rangers, especially at

 ??  ?? County’s Alex Schalk.
County’s Alex Schalk.

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