It’s time to fix the BIGGER problem than Rangers’ SPL away record…

Ok, we’re taking it on. We’ve been avoiding this topic since Sunday, and with good reason – we’ve been grumpy enough without discussing it too, but it’s been doing the rounds enough that we can’t stick our heads in the sand any longer – this ‘away record’ business.

The hard, cold, brutal truth, is that for all the optimism and all the ‘we have better players now’ soundbites we’ve been making ourselves feel better with, this is Rangers’ worst away record over the first four travelled fixtures since 1989.

We remember it well. A home loss to St Mirren, an away loss to Hibs, a decent draw at the old Parkhead, before we finally got a win at Ibrox then proceeded to manage another draw and loss on our travels before revenge on the Buddies in late October at the old Love Street.

However, that Rangers team went onto win 2IAR and had luminaries like Ally, Mojo, Steven, Stevens, and Wilkins in the team so the current crop are in good company.

However, again, there is something some Rangers fans have failed to spot in among all this over the current vintage, and that is an even more worrying stat:

Rangers have only won two matches in any stadium this season other than Ibrox. The brilliant win in Croatia, and the Betfred cup win at Killie. In 10 away matches, including individual UEL qualifier legs, just the two wins.

For all that we have been inspired and calling Stevie the new Uncle Walter, for all the apparent greatness of what we thought we were watching, the results are the true currency of football, and this is the worst Rangers start to a new season in 30 years. Sure, the home league results have been better, but two of them were against the worst teams in the SPL – Dundee and St Mirren, and one cup result was against an Ayr side we painfully overrated.

10 away matches, two wins. On no level is that good enough for Rangers.

Suddenly the next two matches take on colossal significance. Stevie has a massive chance to turn this round – get a win v Vienna and Hearts and so much of the bad stuff can be dismissed as ‘growing pains’.

But the pressure is definitely starting. No one expected a rookie manager to win his first 20 odd matches – no one expected us to be first place in the SPL – but despite how good it appears to look on paper, and the overhaul we seem to have done, the proof is what the results deliver.

And we’re actually worse now than we’ve been for a long time. Let’s fix this.