SAMMON ACCUSES CAIXINHA OF ‘DISRESPECT’

CONOR SAMMON believes Pedro Caixinha showed ‘disrespect’ to Kilmarnock by publicly naming his Rangers line-up a day ahead of the goalless draw at Rugby Park. The Ibrox manager took the unusual step at his pre-match media conference on Tuesday afternoon, confirming the inclusion of debutant youngsters Myles Beerman and David Bates. Caixinha insisted his motivation lay in boosting the confidence of his players after the squad was hit by five defensive injuries. Sammon, however, claimed the bold step helped to fire up Kilmarnock as they secured a second home draw of the season against Rangers. ‘It was a bit of a strange one (Rangers naming their team early) and I don’t really understand the whole meaning behind it,’ said the Irish forward, on loan at Kilmarnock from Hearts. ‘I don’t know if he (Caixinha) was trying to highlight the fact they had a few injuries. But we could use that as extra motivation as it’s a little bit disrespectful, I think. ‘That just fuelled us even more to go out and do the business on the park. I thought we did that.’ Pressed on why he thought the early naming of the team was disrespectful, Sammon added: ‘Usually, you do your work on the training field and keep your tactics to yourself. So you tend to keep these things private. You don’t give the opposition that time to prepare. ‘Normally, it’s at the last minute that you’re looking at their line-up and seeing how they are going to play. I don’t know what he was trying to gain or achieve by naming the team early. ‘But it’s his job to pick a team and, if he wants to name it at the start of the week or the day before, that’s his business. ‘As the opposition team, we can use that as extra motivation. It doesn’t bother us too much as players but we can spin it as if he’s being disrespectful, but that’s among us. Best of luck to him. We’ll just focus on who we have in our team.’