We had stinker
McCall hails fans and asks them to carry his troops to the top 12
From Back Page first two matches in March, draws against Livingston and Alloa, when he questioned the wisdom of succeeding Ally McCoist.
However, McCall hung in, just as he did as Scotland coach two years ago, and was rewarded with a 2-0 win at Easter Road that restored the feelgood factor.
McCall said: “My first two games in charge of Rangers took me back to the time Gordon Strachan, Mark McGhee and I took over at Scotland and we were f****** rotten.
“Everyone thought we could still survive the World Cup campaign but we put in the worst 30 minutes I’ve ever experienced against Wales and then travelled to Serbia and lost there.
“Two games. S***e. True. You’re thinking, ‘What have we let ourselves in for?’ But things can change so quickly in football and we built confidence on the back of a good result in Croatia.
“That’s what I grasped on to after the first two draws at Rangers. All right, it was s***e but there was still light at the end of the tunnel and the result at Hibs helped us get there.”
Defender Lee Wallace laid bare the frustration of the dressing room when he declared the confidence of the team at an all-time low when McCall was barely through the door.
The Ibrox boss added: “I thought, ‘What the hell’s he doing?’ I wanted to get hold of him and give him a big cuddle. I understood how he must have been feeling. No one had been performing particularly well to that point, including Lee, and yet he went on to score the first goal against Hibs.
“Things change so quickly, you have to enjoy and relish it while you can.” STUART McCALL candidly admits he glances around his dressing room and cannot see a squad to compare with any at Rangers over the last 30 years.
However, the Rangers boss can look Lee Wallace and Co in the eyes and trust them to see off Hibs, as much as he can trust the Light Blues legions to show play- off patience from the stands to match the passion for their team.
McCall will read out a letter to his starting XI before kick-off that was penned by the Union Bears’ fan group, urging the players not to fail in the challenges set as they bid to return to the top flight of the Scottish game.
He refuses to consider anything other than he will have at least one more game as Rangers boss at Ibrox, against Motherwell next week, as the focus is pulled from his own future to concentrate on the ambitions of his club.
These play-offs wreak havoc with blood pressure but McCall has turned the usual narrative on its head to insist a home crowd at Ibrox is an inspiration at this stage of the season and not a negative influence.
All that, he frankly admits, when they are watching players who would struggle to lace the boots of previous Ibrox idols such as Terry Butcher, Richard Gough, Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne. McCall said: “I’d rather be at home first in these play-off games. Ibrox can be a difficult place to perform, with all the expectation.
“We’re not the team of Graeme Souness, Walter Smith or Dick Advocaat. We are what we are and we’ll do our best.
“Hibs will think if they can stop us scoring and score first against us then the crowd will turn and it will get tense. There were periods against Queen of the South on Sunday when it was nervous.
“However, in our last two home games the supporters, as much as the players, have got us where we wanted to be, working hand in hand.
“We were losing against Falkirk when Lee McCulloch made a mistake and took a bit of criticism.
“His next three touches were booed, which was horrible.
“But then, some sections of the stadium decided to clap him. Then all the crowd clapped him. We scored two goals in the last eight minutes and wouldn’t have come back that day if it wasn’t for the supporters.
“I watched Sunday’s game again and Richard Foster sliced a ball into the main stand after a bobble. All the crowd groaned. We appealed for a little bit of
GARY RALSTON