THE Rangers revival proved short-lived. They failed to reclaim second spot in the Ladbrokes Premiership when they dropped two points in this encounter with their bottom-placed rivals Ross County yesterday. Their tame display in the 1-1 draw underlined that much improvement is still required before they can be considered the best of the rest in the top flight never mind title contenders.
The Ibrox club could feel aggrieved at much of the treatment which was meted out to their players at the Global Energy Stadium by opponents who picked up six bookings for deliberately and blatantly taking out rival players as they broke upfield on goal. But the cynical approach of their hosts was no excuse for the paucity of the visitors’ performance.
Barrie McKay set up James Tavernier for a late chance, which his team mate fired wide, after coming on. But that was the sum total of their efforts to snatch a winner in the second half. It would have been a gross injustice if they had netted another and claimed all three points.
The same could not be said of County. They fought back well after falling behind to an early Clint Hill goal at a corner and deservedly levelled when Andrew Davies netted midway through the first half with an almost identical effort. They could, and probably should, have snatched victory at the end if they had capitalised on just one of the opportunities they created.
Tim Chow fired an attempt over the crossbar, Liam Boyce shot wide and Alex Shalk also missed his intended target. The latter also unleashed a wickedly-curling long-range effort on goal in injury-time after being gifted the ball by Lee Wallace. Wes Foderingham was highly fortunate to scoop it out for a corner.
Mark Warburton made no attempt to disguise the fact that his team had been disappointing. Nor did he try to claim that Jason Holt should have been awarded a penalty, not booked for diving, after a challenge by Marcus Fraser in the opposition area during the second half. No, he accepted it was their own failings in front of goal which had cost them.
Rangers have to start grinding out wins on their travels if they are to fend off Aberdeen, who have edged back ahead of them in second place in the top flight table after their win over Partick Thistle on Friday night, and Hearts and, at this particular moment, they are not performing well enough in any department to be confident of doing so.
“We got the early goal and then we had six counter-attacks that we had to take advantage of to get ourselves out of sight,” said Warburton. “It wasn’t a good level of performance in terms of moving the ball quickly and decision making. The second half was much like the first.
“Last week (in the 3-0 win over Kilmarnock at Ibrox) was very good, but we want to make sure our average is much better than that. I thought we did enough to be out of sight by half-time. I thought we were sloppy. If you are loose and sloppy in decision-making then the other team will get chances. A loose pass or a sloppy tackle, whatever it might be, meant we gave the ball away too cheaply at times.”
Warburton’s charges had taken the lead in just the sixth minute with the simplest of strikes after their centre half Hill found himself unmarked inside the opposition penalty box at a corner kick. He rose unmarked to meet an excellent outswinging delivery from Josh Windass and headed powerfully into the net.
Rangers had control of proceedings at that stage and created chances aplenty to extend their lead. But when Joe Garner, Kenny Miller and Windass failed to punish County it was almost inevitable they would be made to pay. They appeared fallible at the back and conceded a soft goal themselves.
Andrew Davies, the County captain, had time and space to get on the end of a Chris Burke corner in the Rangers area and power a header past Foderingham. That ultimately proved enough to clinch a morale-boosting draw for his side.
Warburton felt that Hill had been held by Jay McEveley at the set piece and prevented from getting out to the ball. “Clint was blocked off,” he said. It looked bad because their man had a free header, but he was blocked.”
The County scorer afterwards admitted that had been a pre-planned move. Rangers, who have now failed to win seven of their 12 top flight games, must become more streetwise, on the road especially, if they are to flourish in the top flight in the months ahead. That could mean opting not to build play from the back on occasion. The number of times they needlessly gifted their adversaries possession was striking.
For a manager whose team was guilty of play which McKay afterwards branded as “dangerous” Jim McIntyre had rather a lot to say about the display of match official Andrew Dallas. But he had a valid point in some instances.
Foderingham went unpunished for using a hand to control a passback in the first half – an infraction that was deserving of a yellow card and a free-kick. “Why’s it not a hand ball?” McIntrye bellowed from the sidelines. “Do your job.”
“I thought the referee made some strange decisions, that's the best way of putting it,” he said. “I thought he got all his bookings right for us, but it's a handball by Foderingham. I don't know why he doesn't give it. There's another one where the ball hits the bar and goes over and he gives them a corner.
"But I don't want to make too much of his performance. I would rather talk about my team's performance which I thought was fantastic. I thought we were really brave. We've got to take that type of performance and keep trying to make that better. We'll certainly climb the table with that endeavour and that quality.”
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