We will be ready for big kick-off, says Warburton
MARK WARBURTON last night vowed Rangers would be ready for the season curtain-raiser at Easter Road on Saturday despite going down by a solitary goal to Burnley. The Englishman’s Ibrox bow ended in defeat after Scott Arfield’s first-half strike but there were no shortage of positives from his new-look side. The former Brentford manager, who will make Jason Holt his eighth signing today, conceded there was room for improvement in the coming days. However, he believes his side will be on song when they travel to face Championship rivals Hibs in
“This was only ever about the performance”
THEY came primarily looking to put faces to new names. And, despite the adverse scoreline, they departed believing t he hitherto mysterious men in light blue might just be capable of quickly outshining the litany of familiar failures that have gone before them.
Seven weeks after bei ng appointed Rangers manager, and with only two closed-door friendlies under his belt, this was always bound to be an intriguing first night at the office for Mark Warburton.
That his side narrowly lost to a team that was playing English Premier League f ootball l ast season, was never going to be the issue. Pre- season games are invariably poor barometers of what lies ahead.
For the man trusted with rebuilding Rangers into a side that is capable of winning promotion to the top flight, this was only ever about the performance and style of a side t hat has been completely transformed since shamefully failing to do so last season.
There remains much work to do ahead of the visit to Easter Road in the Petrofac Cup this Saturday, yet there were still no shortage of plus points for the former Brentford manager to focus on.
With 11 players deemed surplus to requirements, the scale of the rebuilding job awaiting Warburton and David Weir was colossal.
There have been grumbles and groans from the Ibrox rank and file of late, both at the trickle of fresh faces coming over the threshold and their relative anonymity.
With the first competitive game of the season dawning this weekend, though, seven of those vacancies have now been filled, with Jason Holt, who played as a trialist last night, set to become No 8 today.
It said much about the abject failings of the side last season that just three of them made it into the starting l i ne- up. Lee Wallace, Nicky Law and David Templeton were joined by the vaguely familiar figure of Barrie McKay, the winger having spent the past two years on loan at Morton and Raith Rovers.
Aside from Danny Wilson, the rest, frankly, would not have been known had they turned up in the soup in the Ibrox hospitality suites last term.
First to catch the eye was James Tavernier, the full-back, having signed this week from Wigan together with striker Martyn Waghorn.
The 23-year-old showed pace and panache aplenty down the right side and a fine cross ball to boot.
Having won this division with Hearts last season, Wilson, who was handed the skipper’s armband, needed no re-introduction to the home support. The imposing figure of Rob Kiernan beside him may have been getting his first taste of Ibrox on match night but the former Watford trainee, who also last darkened Wigan’s door, generally cut an assured figure.
Behind a back-four that had Wallace at left - back , Wes Foderingham, the former Swindon Town goalkeeper, had not a solitary thing to do until he took a dunt on the head from Burnley’s Scott Arfield on the half hour mark. Thankfully, he dusted himself down and continued.
Warburton shaped with a bona fide 4- 3- 3 meaning the 22,244 crowd were treated to the sight of genuine width i n the form of McKay on the right flank and Templeton on the left.
The l at te r made Burnley full-back Matt Lowton look pedestrian at times.
McKay didn’t enjoy quite the same impact yet there were sufficient flashes to suggest his Rangers career might yet rise above a fog of forgettable excursions to Peterhead, Forfar and the like.
It was not hard to establish which of the new boys had shot straight to the top of the popularity charts.
Andy Halliday, born and bred a stone’s throw from the stadium, had dreamed of this moment ever since being released by Rangers as a teenager.
Sitting at the lowest point of the three-man midfield, he casually stroked the ball about the lush surface as if he’d been doing it all his days.
Ahead of him, Law was another figure who looked the better for the regime change.
Holt bobbed and weaved in behind the central striker, with a couple of delicious chipped crosses to Waghorn. The central striker looked mobile enough.
His finishing wasn’t quite what it might have been, though. Having skewed one Tavernier cross wide with his head, he missed a pinch from six yards, allowing Matt Gilks to keep the score blank when he had no right to do so.
Arfield showed him how it was done 10 minutes from the break, latching on to Lukas Jutkiewicz’s header and picking his spot in the corner.
Burnley looked more like themselves after the break although the introduction of no less than seven Rangers players in the 64th minute disrupted the game’s rhythm.
Darren McGregor, Kenny Miller, Nicky Clark, Fraser Aird, Dean Shiels, Tom Walsh and debutant Jordan Thompson were the men making the PA announcer earn his corn, while Marius Zaliukas later joined them.