GRAEME Murty last night told the Rangers players that their performance against Aberdeen should be the benchmark for their club and that their season could be kickstarted by their best result so far.
The interim manager could take a huge amount of personal satisfaction for masterminding a 3-0 win which left Rangers supporters wondering when the last time their team had played so well.
Two goals from James Tavernier and one from Carlos Pena gave the home side an easy win on a night when they were better than Aberdeen in every aspect.
Read more: Rangers 3, Aberdeen 0: Superb Gers ease to win as Dons fail to turn up at Ibrox
“I’ll always be confident in the players,” said a smiling Murty. “It’s down to them to perform. We’ve set our benchmark but it means nothing if you don’t go and back it up.
“It’s a different game on Sunday [the teams meet at Pittodrie] and we have to make sure we wrap them up in cotton wool and get them ready to play at a good standard again. It will be a tough, tough game. I don’t imagine for a moment Aberdeen will take that result lying down.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. That’s just one good game. “I see these fellas train every day and I see the level they get themselves to. They’ve just upped it tonight. I asked for a performance and they gave me a really good one.
“The confidence flowed through the team once they got the goals. They took on some good tactical information and it was nearly the complete performance but there are still areas where we can improve.
“It has to be the benchmark. That level of intensity, that grit, that fight and that level of quality. You saw all those aspects from the team tonight. It’s a helluva standard to live up to but if you want to play in this team that’s the level you need to get to.”
Murty moved young centreback Ross McCrorie into midfield and the surprise tactic worked superbly as the 19-year-old hardly put a foot wrong.
Read more: Rangers 3, Aberdeen 0: Superb Gers ease to win as Dons fail to turn up at Ibrox
“In the big games you are looking for the big characters and I didn’t think anyone stood up any bigger than a young lad called Ross McCrorie,” said Murty.
“For a man of his tender years to put in that kind of performance in a position he’s not too familiar with was exceptional. I thought he was outstanding.”
Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, didn’t try to hide away from his team’s performance, not that he would have fooled anyone with a positive spin.
“It was a sore one,” he admitted. “We got what we deserved. We spoke about quietening the crowd at the start of the game, to put pressure on to the Rangers players after the couple of results they’ve had, but we gave them the complete opposite, we gave them a lift.
“We gave away a needless penalty. We need to show more restraint there and awareness. It helped get their crowd into it.
Read more: Rangers 3, Aberdeen 0: Superb Gers ease to win as Dons fail to turn up at Ibrox
“I thought Rangers were brighter than us, showed more energy than us in the middle of the park. They won more headers, they were more aggressive – everything I expected from my own team to be honest.”
To make matters worse for Aberdeen, Gary Mackay-Steven will miss Sunday’s game with an injury, while Ryan Christie is suspended after being sent off late in the game.
“Ryan has to learn,” added McInnes. “He gets himself involved for the first yellow card and I was thinking of taking him off for Sunday, but then Mackay-Steven has to come off with a bang and it looks as though he’ll be out.
“Now we’re without Christie. He suffers, and we suffer as well.”
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