GRAEME Murty can still recall how his Celtic-supporting father Eddie and his other Glasgow-born relations gave him hours of stick after he accepted a position in the youth set-up at Rangers a year and a half ago, writes Matthew Lindsay.
Yet, he knows that if he oversees a victory over the Parkhead club at Ibrox this afternoon his old man, who was the first coach he ever played under as boy and who has helped to mould his views on the game since, will be proud despite his lifelong allegiances.
Murty is hoping to do well enough as Rangers manager this season as to be appointed on a long-term basis in the summer and revealed he has received constant support and invaluable advice from his dad in his daily endeavours.
“My father is keeping a low profile at the moment because he is a Graeme Murty fan first and foremost and won’t be at Ibrox,” he said. “But should we win on Sunday he will be the first one on the phone offering me congratulations – no doubt to annoyance of his family.
“He has been fine. As I’m sure is the case with everyone’s father, he is still critical of everything that I do wrong on a weekly basis. He tells me about my team selection and how my team plays and he still thinks he knows better than me.
“He was one of my very first coaches at Marton, just outside Middlesbrough. He was fairly demanding shall we say. I just used to play wherever he told me to, it didn’t matter to me. He has always been really clear in his values as a football guy, the way he likes the game to be played and the skills he likes footballers to have.
“The understanding that he has of football has really fed into how I like to study the game. He worked in juvenile football and could have had a career in the game, but decided to have a proper trade, as he put it.
“But he’s a fantastically supportive guy and I have to say he’s allowed me to find my own path and not try to put too many constraints on me. He has just been a fantastic support in everything I have tried to do.”
Murty has only been in the dugout in two Old Firm games - at Parkhead last March and then back in December - but his team has drawn them 1-1 and 0-0 respectively.
The former Scotland internationalist, whose side has won six consecutive games and moved to within six points of the defending champions, admitted he would rate a triumph today, which will go a long way towards securing his place, as highly as anything he has achieved in his career.
“I would think this would be one of the best moments of my career,” he said. “What I’ve tried to do in my second stint is not to get too high or too low.
“I haven’t always managed it, but it will be down to me, whatever the result, that we understand why the result has happened and we continue to move forward. We can’t get carried away with one performance or one result.”
Murty’s side has scored 31 goals in the 10 games they have played since the winter shutdown and earned great praise for their attacking play, but the former right back knows they must defend better to prevail against Brendan Rodgers’s side today.
“I’m curmudgeonly,” he said. “I don’t want us to concede. I want us to be complete, to be pushing standards, to be enhancing what we’re doing, to be more clinical in both boxes.”
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