A change in the boardroom and a change of manager but some things never change at Rangers.
Even the inventor of the Elastoplast would struggle to come up with a quick fix at Ibrox. Stuart McCall, the new man at the helm until the end of a largely wretched campaign, has been entrusted with healing the wounds but he is well aware that the monumental repair job he has to carry out is akin to re-pointing Hadrian's Wall with a bent trowel.
Saturday's stumbling, bumbling draw with bottom of the table Livingston - the Glasgow club's fourth in a row - was very much a case of business as usual on the park for Rangers. Such is the way in the fickle world of football, all the talk in the aftermath was largely about the hattered hosts which is unfair on Livingston. Mark Burchill's battlers were resolute, organised, sprightly and inventive. There were times when they had their opponents scurrying around in a dreadful haste as they searched for a winner having been emboldened by Ibra Sekajja's equaliser on the stroke of half-time which cancelled out Haris Vuckic's early opener. They may still be languishing five points adrift of the relegation play-off but, with vital games coming up against Dumbarton and Alloa, Burchill is confident it will be onwards and upwards.
For McCall, meanwhile, there was little optimism to cling to. The one chink of light was provided by the performance of 18-year-old Tom Walsh. As the Rangers players trudged off the field at the end to the kind of baying and bellowing that used to be the reserve of medieval mobs, Walsh was spared from the wrath and afforded a fairly hearty round of applause from those who had appreciated his efforts amid the mediocrity. The young Ayrshireman showed a drive, an energy and an enthusiasm that is sorely lacking elsewhere on the pitch. "I only saw the kid for half an hour the other night but he looked a bit different and we need that freshness," admitted McCall, whose team faces Alloa at home tomorrow night before making a perilous trip along the M8 to face a Hibernian side that are getting stronger and stronger by the week.
Walsh enjoyed his opportunity to shine even if the environment became increasingly hostile and gloomy. "We've got to go and just win games and start performing," he declared with a simple statement of intent that may be easier said than done. "We need to get these fans back onside because they've gone through all that rubbish. We have to stick together and believe in ourselves. There's no point in hiding because if we hide, we've no chance of getting up. Everyone has got to make themselves count and I'm sure it will happen. I only found out I was staring at 1.30 pm so the manager keeps you on your toes."
While Walsh made his mark, Livingston's Darren Cole savoured his return to Ibrox. Like Walsh, the 23-year-old knows a thing or two about being flung in at the deep end with Rangers. It's five years now since the Edinburgh-born defender lined up for the Govan club in a Champions League group match away to Bursaspor in Turkey. Those were the good old days, of course. In 2013, Cole had his contract terminated after failing to report for duty for a friendly match with Cambuslang Rangers and his road to redemption has taken him to Morton and now Livingston. "It was good to be back playing at Ibrox," he said after helping his team capture a valuable point after a run of five successive defeats. "Anyone would have regrets leaving a big club like Rangers but I'm at Livingston and enjoying it. We expected the crowd to be behind Rangers more and for more fans to be at the game with the new manager but I just felt we coped well with all aspects on the day. I was shutting out the Rangers fans. You're just concentrating on the game. But when there is break in play and you hear them being restless then it was a positive sign for us. When I was with Rangers in the Third Division the feeling was that with the players we had at that time the club should, 100 per cent, be getting promoted every year."
The chances of that happening this season get slimmer by the week.
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