Stuart McCall’s Rangers
Revolution had been absolutely flying. Two colossal wins against the Edinburgh pair plus a
convincing dispatch of Fifers Cowdenbeath followed a patchy pair of draws at
the beginning of his tenure, and many fans bought into a corner being truly
turned by lieu of those three wins in a row.
Then Rangers travelled to Palmerston Park and got firmly put in their place
yet again by a Queen of the South side who have the Indian sign over Rangers
and replace Alloa as the Govan team’s bogey outfit.
Last time, under the chaos of the
McCoist era, Rangers were easily overcome 2-0. This time the score was even
more convincing for James Fowler’s men who have now embarrassed two entirely
separate Rangers regimes (both management and board) in the space of a few
months.
The post-match reaction was
mildly hysterical. Fans who had been waxing lyrical about the change in the
team and complimenting the likes of Mohsni, Law, Miller and Vuckic now dismissed
them all in language I cannot repeat here, and castigated McCall for ‘getting
it wildly wrong’, while giving the opposition absolutely no credit at all for
tactically outfoxing their visitors.
It is absolutely true that guys
like Templeton, Vuckic & Law had bad nights, and the desire, hunger, cohesion
and pace of recent games was damningly absent v QoS.
But it seems slightly mirthful to
castrate McCall for his tactics and team selection when pre-match every comment
praised it.
Not one wise comment of ‘this
formation will not work tonight’, or ‘Templeton is not the right player to
start’ before 19:45.
No, the high-and-mighty wisdom
came in hindsight, when all was said and done.
And not a single comment of
credit that Queens were plain good. They countered viciously, quickly, and
bided their time to await their opportunities, while suffocating Murdoch and Law
in midfield. They deserved their win and credit to Fowler and his players for
nailing it.
It is true that Rangers lacked
hunger, and did not fight like they have previously, and it is also true that
McCall did not make the changes needed to turn it around.
Unfortunately the bench had
Hardie, Sinnamon, Crawford, Shiels (not fully fit) and Boyd on it. Hardly an
embarrassment of options with which to change a match. And one imagines McCall
gave them an earful at full time in ‘bad language’ like he said he delivered to
them at the first meeting.
But let us get some context: put
simply, this was a bad night, one to respect, take on the chin, and learn from.
Rangers will come out all guns blazing for Sunday’s match v Raith, and McCall
will adjust necessarily for the match and get it right.
You learn far more from losing
than from winning, and we cannot leap from Erskine Bridge
over one loss.