RICHARD FOSTER, the St Johnstone defender, believes the audible frustration of the Ibrox crowd can often work in the opposition’s favour. Rangers were booed off by a large section of their support following Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with the Perth side that leaves them nine points behind league leaders Celtic having played a game more. Foster had two spells as a Rangers player and so spoke from experience when he said that the fans’ impatience can often prove hugely influential.
“It's difficult [for Rangers at home] as the fans expect them to win,” said the defender. “I've had it from both sides. I know what it's like to be playing for the team and you're trying your best and maybe things are just not coming off for you.
“Every time you get the ball if your pass is not spot-on or where the fans want you to play it, they let it be known that they're not happy. Every pass you make the crowd are umming and ahhing, sighing and getting a bit annoyed, but the manager sets them out to play a certain way and if you want to be in their team you have to play the way he wants you to.
“They try to keep playing the ball from the back - each to their own - but with two minutes to go and you're drawing 1-1, we were maybe expecting them to go long a bit sooner but they didn't. They have their philosophy, they play the way the manager wants them to and it is difficult.
“It's tough to keep getting on the ball and keep trying things. But you come here as an opposing team and that's what you say before the game, “keep yourself in the game, frustrate them early, the fans will get anxious, there are a lot of them, they make a lot of noise” and that helped us grow into the game.
“The nerves started to creep into the [Rangers] team as the game wore on. We sort of edged our way up the pitch and pressed them a little bit higher. You could see from goal kicks and stuff they found it difficult to get out, we got the ball back so often from their goal kicks.
"They're obviously having a tough time at the moment it was a tough result for them at the weekend [losing in the Betfred Cup semi-final] and they're dropping a bit behind Celtic in the league as well. But they have a big squad and a lot of good players so I'm sure they will come through it."
St Johnstone dominated the second half at Ibrox and Foster felt they were unfortunate not to win. "Yeah, we had a couple of chances, I think we hit the post and we had a couple of good moves in the second half. They were pushing for a goal and we caught them on the break a couple of times. When you come to Ibrox it's a good point but having gone ahead as early as we did we're kinda kicking ourselves a little bit that we didn't take our chances. But I think overall a draw was probably fair."
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