I feel like I’ve been 12 rounds with a heavyweight. But we will fight on
SAYS STUART McCALL
FOR Stuart McCall, the bruises inflicted by a brutal beating from Motherwell can only be fixed one way. Rangers have a swift rematch tomorrow afternoon. To secure promotion to the SPFL Premiership, they must come off the ropes swinging.
‘At the moment, I feel like I have been 12 rounds with a heavyweight boxer and punched in the gut,’ said a wincing McCall yesterday. ‘I feel a bit winded, a bit hurt, a bit wounded. But I know I’ll definitely feel 100-per-cent right for Sunday.
‘That’s the same for the players. Naturally, it’s a bit raw in the aftermath of the defeat in the first leg.
‘We still feel a little bit low, understandably. But, come tomorrow, it will be different.’
He bore no cracked ribs, no swollen eyes. Crucially, Rangers connected with a late counter-punch from Darren McGregor. Yet the rope-a-dope breakaway tactics of Motherwell’s players worked better than anyone thought likely. Least of all the man who signed most of their players.
‘I don’t think anyone could have anticipated that kind of performance from Motherwell on Thursday,’ admitted McCall. ‘It was by far and away their best performance away from home all season — full credit to them.
‘Listen, I know Lee Erwin — I gave him a three-year contract when I was there — and although he has been unlucky with injury, he’s got everything you want in a striker.
‘I brought Lionel Ainsworth to the club and knew what he could do up here — and Marvin Johnson on the other f l ank, Motherwell paid money for him. We knew he was a threat.’
McCall needs to find a big- hitter at Rangers now. A player capable of finding the opponent’s jaw.
At 31, Kris Boyd is closer to the end of the road than the start. The expectation is he will leave Rangers once again this summer, his second- coming being an unfulfilling, frustrating affair.
By his standards, 10 goals in 42 appearances is a poor return. But he came close to another as a second-half substitute on Thursday. In desperate need of goals and attacking prowess, McCall will sit the striker down in a corner tomorrow and ask him to provide the firepower Rangers need to save their season.
‘I did say to him on the first day I came in: “Stick at it, who knows, you could be the one who gets us the winning goal that gets us up”,’ added McCall.
‘You have to keep your eyes on that. I’m not saying that’s what’s going to happen. But, at one stage, he wasn’t in the match-day squad of 18. We didn’t take him to Hibs with us.
‘He didn’t go to Dumbarton, either. He could have spat the dummy out like a lot of senior pros might have done.’
In football, there is an old truism. Never go back. There were plenty who doubted the wisdom of Ally McCoist signing two 30-something strikers in Kenny Miller and Boyd. To some supporters, it was clearly a regressive step.
Asked why Boyd, in particular, has found it difficult, McCall can offer no definitive answer.
‘ I honestly don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘All I can say is that he could not have been a better professional since I arrived.
‘It has been difficult for a lot of the players whose contracts are up who have not had any game-time to impress me or a new manager or whoever else comes in.
‘But Boydy has come to training every day and trained to his maximum. Miller and Nicky Clark struck-up a good understanding.
‘We won at Easter Road. We won against Hearts at home. Kenny has scored a lot of crucial goals in that period and played well.
‘We have used Haris Vuckic as a striker, too. Boydy has always been just filling-in. But I can’t speak highly enough of his attitude.
‘It must be difficult for him not being involved — especially with what he has done for the club and his past record here.’
Rangers needs goals at Fir Park tomorrow. For Motherwell, the psychology of the tie is tricky. For McCall’s men, nothing less than two goals in 90 minutes will do.
Asked if this might be Boyd’s stage to get them, McCall simply said: ‘Yeah.’
He has to believe, of course. As players l eft the Murray Park training base yesterday, a hastily-- penned sign propped up by a supporter reminded them nothing was impossible. If they believe, then they can still do it.
Colleagues, mentors and friends have all tried to impart the same message to McCall.
‘I’ve had so many good messages from people inside the game and outside the game and, as we all know, it is only half-time,’ he said. ‘We are fortunate to get another crack at it on Sunday.’
Neil Warnock must surely be one of them. Asked who else had been in touch, the Rangers boss — for now — remains coy.
‘Just people — ex-managers and players,’ he said. ‘They’ve been lifting my spirits. I’ve had some really nice messages when I’ve been feeling a bit down.’
Come tomorrow, he believes his players will need no lifting. They have 90 minutes to stop ‘The Journey’ ending in malfunction.
For Rangers, another season of Championship football is close to unthinkable. One school of thought suggests it would be no bad thing, allowing chairman Dave King and whoever is the manager to rebuild and f orge a side capable of competing in the Premiership.
The evidence of Thursday suggests Rangers are nowhere near that l evel. I f they win promotion now, it will only come from courage and drive. It may be all they have left in the tank.
‘That desire has to come from within,’ said McCall. ‘I like to think I can get the best out of whatever I’ve had to work with since I’ve been a coach and a manager.
‘Whatever way you do that, deep down it comes from within. It has to. They need to come off the pitch on Sunday having given everything.
‘When questions have been asked of us this season — and there have been doubters — the players have responded on most occasions since I’ve been at the club.
‘I think we can go and do that again on Sunday.’