THE incongruous, slightly surreal nature of having a club the size of Rangers playing in the lower reaches of the game has led to a raft of jokes whenever Ally McCoist's side have been involved in cup competition this season.
"Could be a shock at Falkirk versus Rangers – the third division minnows are in front!" was the general gist of it, the sort of humour that would probably even elicit a groan from people who make a living writing jokes for Christmas crackers.
There may be further outbreaks of side-splitting across Scotland this evening. Rangers' maiden voyage in the Ramsdens Cup has reached the quarter-final stage and they will look to pull off yet another giant-killing act (ha ha!) when they take on Queen of the South, leaders of the second division. Rangers, in fact, should win comfortably. In stark contrast to their rocky away displays, their home form has been solid this season, a brace of convincing league wins matched by two thumping cup victories over East Fife and Falkirk. They may be playing in the third division but their results at Ibrox have been as comprehensive as they tended to be when they were still a Scottish Premier League side.
Only Queens' form may give McCoist some cause for concern. Relegated at the end of last season, the Palmerston club entered this campaign with a new chairman and a new manager in place. The start made in this new era has surely surpassed all expectations. Queens are undefeated in nine matches, knocked Hibernian out of the Scottish Communities League Cup, and scored 10 goals in their last two league matches. They could well be brought back down to earth at Ibrox tonight but they will at least approach the challenge brimming with confidence.
Leading the revival are two former Rangers players. Manager Allan Johnston's one season under Dick Advocaat was fairly unremarkable, the midfielder failing to match the highs of the hat trick once famously snared at Ibrox as a Hearts player. Sandy Clark, Johnston's assistant, had a similarly brief spell as a Rangers player although did spend most of it as the strike partner of the man now managing at Ibrox.
"I've obviously kept in touch with big Sandy over the years and he's a good mate," said McCoist. "Sandy was as brave as a lion as a centre forward and a great character and I'm delighted to see him back in the game. Him and Allan are doing well down there. They have only had one draw against East Fife and from watching that they should probably have won that as well.
"They are really direct. That's what Allan and Sandy were like as players and that's the case now they are coaches – they get balls into the box and have players who can finish. We have watched videos of them and they have started the season well. I think this could be our biggest challenge at home so far this season.
"I don't doubt that the so-called smaller clubs we play against fancy their chances. In the current climate if you want a time to play Rangers then it's now when the club is going through a transitional phase. They'll fancy it but I hope our good home form continues."
Rangers have found returning to Ibrox reassuring after facing numerous difficulties on the road. This journey through the lower leagues was always likely to be one strewn with pitfalls and Saturday's draw with Annan Athletic was a third successive away league match without a win. McCoist believes it is too early to be worrying unduly about such a record but appreciates that a club with Rangers' resources ought to be doing better.
"I can't speak for the players because I don't have their opinion on it. But I would hope the fact of where we are has hit home to them now," said McCoist. "For all the glory and joy of playing at Ibrox in front of 45,000 you still get the same three points away from home when you go to Annan, Berwick and Peterhead. While it is a different set up entirely we have to get better results away from home. It is not a disastrous scenario by any stretch of the imagination as we have drawn three games and not lost them but we still need to get better."
McCoist conceded trips to Galabank, Glebe Park and Balmoor have proved to be eye-opening moments for many of his squad, in particular the young foreign players who joined in the summer. Fran Sandaza went as far to describe the experience as akin to fighting a war and hopes to adjust to it. "Everybody is expecting 4-0 and 5-0 but teams are playing the game of their lives, very sharp, very aggressive, and with no space," said the Spaniard.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article