Write Light Blues off at your peril, insists defiant Wallace

DEFIANT Rangers vice-captain Lee Wallace has vowed to silence the critics who have “written off” his side as SPFL Championship contenders.

Wallace and his Gers teammates have come in for some serious flak since crashing to a 3-1 defeat to Hibs at home on Monday night.

The disappointing result meant that the Ibrox club fell six points behind early second tier pacesetters Hearts.

And it led to growing calls from brassed-off Light Blues supporters for under-fire manager Ally McCoist to be sacked. But left-back Wallace reckons the players will use the abuse as motivation in their game against Livingston at Almondvale.

He said: “I’ve got a feeling that we are being written off and the manager is being questioned.

“That goes with the territory, but I believe that with the boys we have here we will be fine come the end of the season.

“We have to use the criticism positively. We know it happens and you are never going to get away from that.

“We are a bit more scrutinised here, but we are ready for it and it is up to us to go out there and make it better.”

Wallace added: “You always want to rectify a bad result like the one we had on Monday night as quickly as possible.

“We’ve had the chance to look back at the video and we’ve had a long chat about it.

“We’ve looked at the goals and the performance but without even having to do that we know we have to do a lot better.

“We are now looking towards Livingston and trying to rectify what happened.”

Hearts left-back Kevin McHattie this week insisted the Tynecastle club could go through the Championship undefeated.

But Wallace, who managed that feat in League One with Rangers last season, is sceptical that his former club can achieve that feat in the 2014/15 campaign.

He said: “It was difficult for us last year. Hearts have started great. Robbie Neilson has done great since stepping in. They are playing well and are good to watch.

“But it will be a difficult task for them to go unbeaten. They have a difficult game coming up, away to Queen of the South.

“It will be difficult for anybody to go unbeaten in such a competitive league. We’ve been made aware of that in the games that we have played.”