ANDY HALLIDAY savoured the proudest moment of his Rangers career as he captained Mark Warburton’s side to victory over Queen of the South on Tuesday night.
The midfielder was handed the armband after skipper Lee Wallace was rested for the Betfred Cup quarter-final and lead by example at Ibrox as he turned in another accomplished display following his return to the team against Ross County on Saturday.
Halliday was left out of the starting line-up for the Old Firm defeat to Celtic and was then involved in the training ground bust-up with Joey Barton that lead to the Englishman being suspended by Rangers. It was to the 24-year-old that Warburton turned on Tuesday as he fulfilled the captain’s duties and the lifelong Rangers supporter was thrilled to receive the honour.
Read more: Cup keeper Gilks hoping for chance in the Old Firm spotlight
“It is certainly one of the proudest moments of my career to captain this great football club,” Halliday said. “There have been many great football players who have captained this legendary club and to be added to that list – albeit one game – it’s a phenomenal achievement for myself, and most importantly it was a 5-0 win for us.
Read more: Cup keeper Gilks hoping for chance in the Old Firm spotlight
“It’s good to get back in amongst the goals and I thought we were back to our free-flowing best. Apart from a 15-minute spell at the start of the second half I thought it was a lot like the Rangers we are used to.
“It’s fair to say it’s something I have dreamed of for a long time and I managed to sample that for 20 minutes against Linfield. But being a competitive game and with it being at Ibrox in front of our fans, it was probably the proudest moment of my Rangers career.”
It was to prove a satisfying night all round for Halliday as he marked the occasion with his second goal of the campaign.
His second half strike all-but secured a semi-final spot for Warburton’s side before Martyn Waghorn hit a hat-trick to complete a comfortable 5-0 win.
“We echoed to him before the game that he has nothing to prove,” Halliday said of the Ibrox striker. “It’s good to see him back out there first and foremost and he’s got to realise the goals will come.
“Obviously being Waggy, he gets down on himself if he misses a couple of chances so we’ve just drilled it into him that he needs to be composed and calm within himself because we all know Waggy’s quality and he’s going to get goals. It was good to see him take another ball home [on Tuesday].”
With their place at Hampden secured, Rangers will now turn their attentions back to the Premiership and a meeting with Aberdeen on Sunday. Having taken just nine points from their opening six games, Warburton’s side are in need of a win at Pittodrie to kick-start their top flight title bid.
Read more: Cup keeper Gilks hoping for chance in the Old Firm spotlight
The Gers boss could be without Josh Windass for the trip north, however, after he was forced to withdraw from the side on Tuesday night after suffering a hamstring injury during the warm-up.
“It was very disappointing first and foremost because I think Josh has been a very exciting player for us,” Halliday told rangers.co.uk. “He’s still a young boy and the way he handled his debut against Celtic, albeit it was a very disappointing performance from ourselves, I thought he was excellent in that game and he carried that on to last week. So it is very disappointing to lose him and hopefully it’s not for too long.
“But you can see Niko (Kranjcar) with his quality, he’s came in and he’s played a big part in the 90 minutes. I thought he was different class so we’ve certainly got a very good squad that fill in these positions.”
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