Stuart Garden seems to be drawn to distress signals coming from Ibrox.
The Montrose manager takes his side to face Rangers tomorrow at the end of a week in which their hosts have suffered the ignominy of a goalless draw away to Annan Athletic in the league and a penalty shoot-out defeat by Queen of the South in the Ramsdens Cup.
He knows how they feel, although he is not inclined to feel too sympathetic. Garden witnessed another uncomfortable episode at Ibrox while learning his trade as the goalkeeping coach for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, with the Highland side tugging at the fraying edges of Paul Le Guen's reign.
He celebrated on the sidelines as Graham Bayne scored the only goal in Inverness's 1-0 win at Ibrox in October 2006. It was a result which chilled the air while turning up the heat on a manager that was already under pressure.
"Paul Le Guen was in charge and he brought in Lionel Letizi for Allan McGregor, which was not too popular a move with the Rangers fans," said Garden. "Our goal came from a mistake from Lionel and you could feel the pressure from the 50,000 crowd beginning to be cranked up on the manager at the end of the game."
A second win two months later in Inverness ushered the Frenchman closer to the exit. "We were behind but came back and won it 2-1 with a last-minute goal from John Rankin," said the Montrose manager. "It was a great day for Inverness but within a week Paul Le Guen was gone."
Garden was also able to celebrate one final victory over Rangers – Ian Black scoring a last-minute penalty for Inverness as they battle relegation in 2009 – before departing the Highland side for Montrose that summer.
Adding a fourth to his cv win would take something special, though. "We will need a bit of luck and, hopefully, any pressure Rangers put on us will result in shots against the bar and post while we score any chances we make," he said. "If you are going to do anything then you have to be brave. I'm sure we will be."
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