The best in Scotland, and Wigan helped prove it…

If there was one thing we learned from yesterday’s ultimately emphatic win over now-Championship side Wigan, it was that the right man is between the sticks in Rangers’ goal.

There was of course never any doubt that Allan McGregor would be number one; the manager and the player himself did tried to ‘play down’ the notion the 36-year old Scotland international would be automatic first choice, but naturally we all knew quite blatantly he was the first pick as the last line of defence.

And we must say, while the defence did a solid job of keeping Wigan at bay, both Jak Alnwick and Wes Foderingham rather highlighted the inferior goalkeeping standard Rangers fans have put up with since 2012.

I should assert – this is not an attack on either of them – we at Ibrox Noise have always admired Alnwick in particular, and his displays during the split last season were impressive and stopped some bad results being even worse. Meanwhile Foderingham is an average shot stopper, we suppose, but honestly we can’t think of much else that’s good about him when we compare him with the man who’s taken his mantle.

But the pivotal point is both Alnwick and Wes are so far off being Allan McGregor, and the ex-Besiktas stopper really is the kind of level Rangers fans should expect, rather than the arguments over the past six years trying to justify the likes of Foderingham and Bell as being good enough.

The difference in the four matches featuring McGregor compared with the slightly shakier displays yesterday from both Alnwick and Wes sum up what Rangers have now and what we deserve.

While Wes saved an (atrocious) penalty, he fumbled a grass cutter too and struggled to gather – something he’s done so much over the years but not until the safe hands of McGregor did we notice such weakness was absent. With Wes’ return yesterday his failings screamed out like a sore thumb.

We know this sounds like a hate fest, it isn’t. It is true we’re not fans of Foderingham, but he and Jak only showed yesterday how much better McGregor actually is.

Alnwick is an honourable enough deputy, but McGregor really is in a different league to anything else in Scotland and we are lucky he is one of us.