GRAEME Murty has bullishly insisted his battered and bruised Rangers team will go on to claim the runners-up spot in the Premiership.
The club have been in turmoil since the chastening 4-0 thumping by Celtic in last week’s Scottish Cup semi-final and the suspensions of captain Lee Wallace and Kenny Miller for expressing candid views in the immediate aftermath.
Murty asserts there is no disciplinary issue at the club and he believes a powerful end to the league campaign will begin today with a win over Hearts.
“It’s in our grasp, it’s in our hands,” he said. “I’ve said all the way through that this team has the talent, the capacity, to finish second. We’re in second because they’ve shown ability, they’ve shown quality at times, they’ve shown fight.
“We’ve got our belief knocked badly on Sunday because we didn’t turn up and represent ourselves in a proper manner. But they have more than enough, in my opinion, to go and grasp second, if they continue to believe and continue to pull in the same direction.”
As well as the Wallace and Miller issue, both Andy Halliday and Daniel Candeias reacted angrily to being taken off last Sunday while Greg Docherty and Alfredo Morelos argued angrily at the conclusion.
Murty has said that while he understands, that kind of behaviour is not becoming of a Rangers player.
“I don’t think there is a discipline issue. I just think it’s a difficult time,” he said. “Everyone’s a human being subject to the emotions coursing through their veins, and being substituted in the biggest game of the season against our biggest rivals is not a nice experience, I understand that. Speaking to the players after that, we’ve said to them, while we understand that, we still have a way of conducting ourselves.
“I appreciate you’re a human being and want to do better and I appreciate you’re upset, great, I don’t want anyone coming off the pitch happy to come off, but we have to conduct ourselves in a better way.”
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