MARK OXLEY, the Hibernian goalkeeper, has described his move to Scotland as an "eye-opener" after admitting that he had little knowledge or interest in Rangers' decline while he was at Hull City.
The crisis-torn Ibrox side visit Easter Road tomorrow afternoon and Oxley aims to heap more misery on Kenny McDowall's men. Rangers arrive in the capital amid a backdrop of financial concerns and boardroom wrangling, with Ally McCoist having been placed on gardening leave on Sunday evening.
Off- field drama has been commonplace in Govan for over three years, but Oxley concedes he only realised the extent of Rangers' woes after joining Hibernian on loan in August. He reckons the Glasgow giants are comparable to the likes of Portsmouth and Leeds United south of the border.
The 24-year-old said: "It has been an eye-opener. You don't look at the Rangers situation as much when you are down south. When you are up here you realise Rangers are a massive club and you can't help but notice what's going on there . . . it's a bit of a shame really.
"Similar to teams like Portsmouth and Leeds, they are massive clubs down there and shouldn't really be where they are. But these things happen in football and appear to be happening more regularly. That shouldn't be the case but it is. Clubs like that are not being run properly, for whatever reason.
"But since I have been here the gaffer has put in our minds it's not about what happens outside these four walls, it's what happens inside them. We just need to treat Saturday like a normal game and go into it full steam. You can still thrive on the opportunity to play against the big teams; that's where you are going to get noticed."
Seven points separate the sides ahead of tomorrow's fixture, but Oxley fully believes Hibs can bridge the gap. Indeed, the Sheffield-born stopper has refused to rule out a tilt at the title despite having fallen 19 points adrift following Hearts' 2-0 win against Cowdenbeath on Tuesday. "If you look at the games we've played against Hearts I don't think we've been far off them," he said. "We'll just do what we have been in recent weeks and we know if we keep performing we'll be in with a shout.
"The manager has said all along that the end of the season will be the time to judge us and we're confident we'll be where we think we should be."
Oxley is determined to be a part of Hibs' second half of the season and believes that the Hull City manager Steve Bruce would be open to letting him extend his stay in Leith. As it stands, Oxley is scheduled to return to the KC Stadium next month. He said: "I spoke to Alan Stubbs and I just told him I was enjoying it and if he was happy for me to stay then I would love to. So I am just waiting to see what happens. I think my agent has spoken to Hull and they are happy for me to stay, and while I am enjoying it up here there really is no reason for me to go back."
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