Light Blues don’t need reminding to take nothing for granted . . .
RANGERS McCrorie admits letting lead at top of table slip has given Gers all the
IT is always helpful to get a reminder that you shouldn’t take anything for granted. Luckily for Rangers, they have been able to recover from the gentle boot up the backside they received the last time they reached the top of the Premiership standings to regain their berth looking down on their rivals.
By tomorrow night of course, that could all have changed again though. The musical chairs at the top of the table over the festive season could well continue long after we have been rocking around the Christmas tree, but the challenge for Rangers now is to make sure they are still top of the standings once the cacophony that will accompany the Old Firm meeting at Ibrox fades into the New Year.
Making the mistake of taking their eye off the ball a little after beating Hearts a fortnight ago to slip to a home defeat against Aberdeen and a draw to 10-man Dundee to relinquish top spot might be just about forgivable from a supporter’s point of view, but Rangers won’t get away with failing to heed the lessons from easing their foot off the gas just a little last time around.
That is the view of their midfielder Ross McCrorie, in any case, who insists that far from basking in the glory of reaching the top of the tree this time around, Rangers are instead hell-bent on ensuring they remain there by the time they do actually get to put their feet up for an extended period in the winter break.
“It is great to be back at the top of the table, but we are not going to get carried away, especially after what happened a couple of weeks ago,” McCrorie said.
“We went top and then all of a sudden we weren’t. The aim this time is to stay there.
“Hopefully, we have learned from what happened last time. But, there is still a long way to go. We still have more than half a season left.
“We just have to take each game as it comes and try not to look too far forward.”
A wise mantra, with competition in the Ladbrokes Premiership seemingly tougher than it has been in quite some time. But despite the increased competitiveness, McCrorie believes that Rangers should be looking to win the vast majority of matches that they go into and offers no attempt at justification for the occasions when they have failed to register all three points.
“There are no excuses for going top and then dropping points against Aberdeen and Dundee,” he said. “To be honest, we should be winning these games.
“It was a sticky patch although these things will happen during the course of a season. That is in the past and, at the moment, we are where we want to be.”
And currently, having started the last two matches, McCrorie is back where he wants to be: at the heart of the Rangers midfield.
Injury has played a major part in the stop-start season he has had to date, but so too has manager Steven Gerrard’s cut-and-dried assertion that McCrorie is a midfielder.
The distinction that the 20-year-old will not be deployed in defence as he had been in the past under Pedro Caixinha and Graeme Murty at times has limited his opportunities for game-time, such is the cut-throat competition for places in that area.