CONNOR Goldson has vowed to stay at Rangers until they land silverware – and predicted the Ibrox club’s new-found defensive solidity will increase their chances of lifting a trophy this season.
Goldson has rekindled his impressive centre back partnership with Filip Helander in the 2020/21 campaign and helped Steven Gerrard’s side break a 114-year-old clean sheet record.
The Englishman, who is set to start against Ross County in the Premiership match in Govan this afternoon, believes the Glasgow club can look forward with confidence.
“The partnership has been really good with Filip,” he said. “I thought it started well last year and we were just starting to adapt to each other.
“We were keeping clean sheets, but then he got injured. Fortunately, he's come back really strong this year and we look solid at the back.
“We were disappointed to concede on Thursday night (against Galatasaray in the Europa League play-off) because I thought we defended really well over the course of the game.
“But Fil has done really well, he's slotted again perfectly. Hopefully now he can stay injury free and we can have a long partnership together.”
Goldson added: “I hope we can forge a real partnership here long-term that can get success by winning trophies. That's what we all want.
“It doesn't matter who's on the team-sheet, we all want to win as a team. We're desperate to bring silverware back to this club, which it deserves.
“Hopefully sooner rather than later, it can be us that brings it back. I don't want to ever leave this football club without winning anything.
“The back four feels as solid as it's ever done. We go into games now with a high hope of keeping clean sheets.
“You can't do it in every game and we've conceded a few sloppy ones against Galatasaray and Hibs.
“But if we can keep a clean sheet in any game, usually we'll score a goal so that gives us a better chance of winning.”
Goldson believes that Rangers captain James Tavernier, who has picked up the Premiership Player of the Month for September award, deserves great credit for the Ibrox club’s run.
“Tav is massive for Rangers,” he said. “He's the captain and I don't think this club appreciates what Tav has given to it.
“If you look at his stats, he's got over 250 games, 50 goals from right-back and I don't even know how many assists.
“He's always going to come under criticism because if you play that many games as a defender you're going to make a mistake every now and then.
“That's only human. The best defenders in the world make mistakes. Look at the highest level, even in the Premier League top defenders make errors.
“So I think Tav gets unfair criticism at times. He always plays, he's always available and his numbers are frightening.
“The club is lucky to have him and hopefully he proves me right by having another solid season. We're at a stage now where we have to win so hopefully this year is a big one for both of us.”
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 here