MY LOWEST MOMENT
McCulloch has endured calamities at Rangers but the captain says ...
IN his seven years at Rangers, Lee McCulloch has experienced most of what football can offer. There have been plenty of traumas to accompany the triumphs. The financial meltdown of 2012 brought administration, a descent through the divisions and the dismantling of a successful squad. On the field, McCulloch suffered heartbreak in the 2008 UEFA Cup Final and has seen league titles slip away to arch-rivals Celtic.
Yet none of those events caused the 35-year-old to feel as much despair as last Sunday’s desperate Ramsdens Cup Final defeat by Raith Rovers. That was when McCulloch hit rock-bottom.
‘Sunday was a real low, personally,’ he said. ‘I know there were thousands of fans let down. I am certainly well aware of that and so is the dressing room.
‘I would say hearing the full-time whistle on Sunday was definitely the lowest point of my career.’
Asked if that included all the off-field turmoils he had encountered, he added: ‘I’m factoring it all in.
‘That has been the lowest point in my career after that game on Sunday.
‘I’m only speaking on behalf of myself, not anyone else. Personally, it doesn’t get much lower. But I don’t want to take anything away from Raith Rovers — that is just how I felt.’
The Ramsdens Cup was a tournament McCulloch never imagined he would play in when he joined Rangers, but it was one in which he was desperate to triumph.
To repay the fans for their support. To give manager Ally McCoist the first cup of his tenure. To prove that the Ibrox side had taken another step on their upward journey.
All those aims were wiped out when John Baird scored three minutes from the end of extra-time following a calamitous spate of defending involving the Ibrox captain, Richard Foster, and Bilel Mohsni.
McCulloch did his duty afterwards, shaking hands with every Raith player, but his thoughts were a blur.
‘I didn’t know what I was doing,’ he admitted. ‘My first thought was that I needed to show a bit of respect to the team that’s won, so I shook their hands. Then I think I tried to get back to the dressing room just to get away from it all, but I was told I wasn’t allowed.
‘ So I sat somewhere, I can’t remember where. I went up for the medal and we just came in. But the dressing room, as you would expect, wasn’t the best place to be.
‘There was a mixture of everything. Sometimes right after a game isn’t the best time to have a discussion. Sometimes it is better to take a step back and have a discussion 48 hours after. The players have been speaking to each other to see how we can move on and we are going to move on. It is all about Saturday now.’
Rangers must drag themselves up from bitter disappointment to face Dundee United in a Scottish Cup semi-final that is now viewed as a test of their credibility. With angry supporters pointing f i ngers at McCoist, the Ibrox side badly need to summon a performance f ar removed from their toiling efforts at Easter Road.
The odds are against Rangers — with bookmakers pricing United as firm favourites to deepen the gloom — but McCulloch is convinced they can rise to the occasion.
‘Sunday was a very sore one from the players’ point of view, but the mood in the camp is good,’ he said. ‘We have trained hard and the focus has to be on the weekend.
‘If you look at past Rangers teams who have been successful, it has been case of how they bounce back from a setback. That is the road we have to go down.
‘We have to try hard — and it is hard — to forget about last Sunday. We’ve got to get on and be positive for this Dundee United game.
‘The boys in the dressing room know the importance of this game. If anyone has read a paper or listened to the radio recently, it shows you the passion of the fans. Personally, I love it. I think it’s great.
‘I have been here long enough to know that without the fans, the club is nothing. We need them and we are going to need them at the weekend. I have no doubts they will come and support the team as they always do.
‘In the last couple of years in particular, the support they have shown really has been the best I have ever experienced.’
United are unbeaten i n the Scottish Cup against Rangers since 1989, winning four out of the five games since. They cruised to a 3-0 success over McCoist’s men last season but McCulloch is adamant Rangers are far better placed now.
‘Yes, definitely,’ he said. ‘I think we’ve got a bit more experience.
‘We have taken arguably their best player in Jon Daly.
‘It’s one where we can do all the talking, we can sit and talk forever, but it’s all about just what happens on the day. Hopefully, as a dressing room, we will go and do our talking on the pitch.
‘It is about knowing the importance of the game. We need our leaders in the dressing room to stand up, we need our young boys to put on a show, embrace it, be excited about it and have a togetherness as a team. We have got that. We need to keep it together and get over the line.’
It now seems more dubious as to just how much of an advantage playing at ‘neutral’ Ibrox will be to Rangers. An edgy crowd could easily turn on them should United take an early grip.
‘I don’t even know which dressing r oom we will be i n,’ added McCulloch.
‘It is more familiar, it is our stadium. But Dundee United will bring a really good support so I wouldn’t say there will be much of an advantage. It is a pitch with goals.
‘Our only advantage will be the fans that will turn up and be louder than the Dundee United fans.’