LEARNING FROM THE EXPERIENCE
Martin insists McCrorie will bounce back from Hampden horror show after words of wisdom
RUSSELL MARTIN could not afford to feel sorry for himself. Spotting the suffering of a crest-fallen Ross McCrorie, the senior centre-half was compelled to park any pity at play over his own role in the Scottish Cup downfall of Rangers.
The 32-year-old, on loan from Norwich, was inescapably one of the whipping boys a fortnight ago when his botched clearance bounced into the path of Callum McGregor for Celtic’s second goal.
Then it was over to McCrorie for the third. The capitulation continued for Rangers as the rookie dragged down Moussa Dembele and was dealt the double-whammy devastation of conceding a penalty then being red-carded.
When the centre of a defence suffers such serious issues in an Old Firm semi-final, the outcome is never pretty and Martin knew the horror show would be replayed in his own mangled mind later that evening.
But experience has taught him how to deal with setbacks, coping mechanism hacks gleaned from years in the game. Martin recognised
how McCrorie, 20, might have felt after the long walk off the Hampden turf in the glare of the capacity national stadium crowd and a colossal television audience.
From what Martin has witnessed of McCrorie since, and taking into account how the preparation has gone for yet another daunting Celtic clash, the Scotland defender is convinced the scars have already healed at Rangers.
Martin said: ‘As a young player, you play it over and over in your head a million times. You can’t sleep for two, three nights while you’re thinking about what you might have done differently.
‘I’ve got to a point in my career where you reflect, analyse and, after a couple of days, it has to go. You have to move on, learn from it, look forward to the next one. Otherwise it becomes a problem.
‘And if you let it hang over you too long, it goes into the next one. I said the same to Ross after his sending off. He was devastated. But he’ll learn from it. He’ll be better for it and you can guarantee on Sunday he’ll put in a performance that will show that.
‘When you’re young, it’s difficult and probably a bit harder now with social media than when I was Ross’s age. If I played badly, then lads would go to the pub and talk about how bad I was. Now they go on the computer or mobile and let you know in about two seconds.
‘These lads need to deal with that and they know that. Some of them are on social media, some not. If it’s going well, the plaudits are good. They need to respond properly to that, not get carried away and keep working hard.
‘Making one mistake doesn’t make you a bad footballer. Playing at the top level, the better players don’t listen to noise. They just get on with it and are consistent in their daily approach, standards and professionalism.’
Rangers started badly and deteriorated in the 4-0 drubbing, Martin culpable for letting Celtic steal into a 2-0 interval advantage from which there would be no way back.
‘It hurt a lot,’ said Martin. ‘It was a difficult afternoon and, for sure, a difficult week after that. I made a mistake for the second goal which was not nice in a game like that.
‘Nine times out of ten, you clear the ball or it falls for one of your players. But it didn’t.
‘At half-time we spoke tactically of what we needed to do — get near people, pressing far better and be more aggressive. The sending-off changes the game, which alters the score, too.
‘It’s easy to get caught up in the hype of the occasion and the other stuff but to play 40-odd minutes against a team like that down to ten men was difficult. We’ve looked at all that and it will be different this time. It needs to be.
‘We didn’t give ourselves a chance last time with the way we started the game, really. They got the wind in their sails, they sensed they were playing well and got on top of us. It wasn’t just one player, we had difficulties all over the pitch.
‘We’ve addressed that. The approach will be different this time. Hopefully we’ll deal with it better — we certainly need to be a bit more aggressive than we were the last time.
‘We’ve watched a lot of that from the 0-0 at New Year and the differences between the games were huge. We need to go back to that mentality side of it.’
Although Ibrox would be his first choice, Martin won’t be granted a permanent Rangers return. That means the opportunity to go out on an Old Firm high following one of the most wretched lows is welcomed.
When asked if it was understandable if some players had no wish to see Celtic again after the most recent experience, Martin said: ‘Some people could think like that. But it’s a chance to prove there was unhappiness and dissatisfaction about the performance.
‘We understood that, as a group of players, we have the chance to go and put that right and put in a performance for ourselves, the manager, staff and fans to be proud of.
‘If we didn’t have that opportunity, the last game drags into the first Old Firm game next season. So it’s a positive that we have this chance.
‘I might only be here for another two-and-a-half weeks, so to play in another Old Firm game gives me the chance to atone for the last one and I’m looking forward to it.’
Ross was devastated with the sending off. But he will come out better for it