Miller says the battle fever is back at Ibrox
Even if the victories have come too late to affect the destination of the Premiership title, Rangers’ last two performances suggest something deeper than mere surface improvements.
At least, and at last, the Ibrox club appear to be adjusting to a league in which fighting spirit often trumps finesse, gumption can be more useful than guilt — and the only unforgivable fault is cowardice in the face of an enemy assault.
Kenny Miller, a man who needs lessons from no one in the peculiarities of a Scottish top flight with its own rare flavouring, knows that talk of a title challenge to Celtic is just that. Talk.
In his opinion, the target has already shifted from contending for the league flag to ensuring that the gap between the old rivals is ‘respectably close’.
But that doesn’t mean the veteran striker is going to stop battling away. Indeed, the heartening thing for Miller is that the stirring home wins over Aberdeen and then Hearts, which followed a dispiriting defeat at Tynecastle, have seen the Rangers players prioritise the ugly side of the beautiful game.
Asked specifically about all-action striker Joe Garner’s combative style earning a standing ovation from Rangers fans in Saturday’s revenge mission against Hearts, Miller said: ‘The last two games have maybe demanded that side of the game.
‘We saw the performance at Tynecastle, which wasn’t good enough both in terms of battling qualities and how we played. Look, the lads battled, but we lost too many one-on-ones, too many 50-50s.
‘Too many of the second balls dropped to Hearts players that night, so the last couple of games have demanded a bit of what Joe brings.
‘He has that in abundance. He wears his heart on his sleeve and has done a big, big job for us in the last two games in helping us get the results.’
Addressing directly the criticism that Rangers have been inflexible in their adherence to one specific style, Miller added: ‘If that Hearts game taught us anything, it’s that we are going to have to win the battles.
‘We always use the term: “We do what we do”. But teams are not going to allow us to have it all our own way.
‘That Hearts game was the first time any team has really stopped us from building out from the back.
‘We always say there are solutions, but we didn’t find them that night.
‘In the last couple of games, we’ve definitely found solutions by playing a little bit differently, but also by sticking to our principles.
‘The last two games definitely give us hope. The results, first and foremost, were good, but the performances were far better — particularly on Saturday.
‘As much as we battled well, which you have to do against Hearts, I thought we played good football. I don’t think a four or a five-goal win would have been too harsh.
‘It would have been good to get a few more goals and it would have been a far bigger statement if we’d got them.
‘We are definitely going in the right direction. You’ve seen a different side to the team in the last couple of games.’
Football being football, fans are wont to look at two wins as cause to make bold declarations of intent.
Barrie McKay perhaps allowed his emotions to get the better of him when, in the aftermath of Saturday’s win, he insisted the title race was far from over.
Yet Miller, aware that Rangers trail a Celtic team with three games in hand by eight points already, insisted: ‘At the moment, it’s a big, big ask. We keep talking about putting a run of consistent wins together and, to have any chance of clawing back some of that gap, we have to do that.
‘You never give up. That’s what I took from what Barrie said. We’ll never give it up and we won’t concede it.
‘But for us to get it back and make it respectably close, we are going to have to put a run together. We’ve still not managed to get three wins in a row.
‘We have another opportunity to do that away to Hamilton on Friday and, if we do that, we want to kick on to four and five wins in a row. For us to have any kind of successful season, we have to put a consistent run of wins together — and, hopefully, we are at the start of doing that.
‘This is a great spell for us because the games come thick and fast. That gives us the chance to put that run together.’
With his 37th birthday just weeks away, Miller shows few signs of losing his appetite for the fray.
A contract extension beyond the end of his current deal — which expires at the end of the season — is all he wants for Christmas.
‘It’s no secret that I don’t want be going anywhere else,’ he said.
‘I would love to finish — in five years’ time — at Rangers, but who knows? All I can do is do what I do.
‘I feel I’m contributing and I’ve always said that, as long as I’m playing and contributing to the team, I’m more than happy to continue playing.
‘I don’t feel different to when I was 27 or 28.
‘You might lose a wee half-yard here or there, but you can gain that with your experience and knowledge of the game.
‘I am just as hungry as I was 10 years ago.’