Ayr grudge match at Ibrox might not be walkover for Rangers

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Ayr grudge match at Ibrox might not be walkover for Rangers
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 09: Rangers manager Philippe Clement is seen during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Rangers FC and Dundee FC at Ibrox Stadium on December 09, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Morton’s stunning win over Motherwell yesterday only proved Rangers cannot take Ayr United lightly at Ibrox today, and Ibrox Noise will already accept an ugly 1-0 with 90th minute winner in off Willie Collum’s backside.

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With the weight of three competitions on our backs, and arguably maybe not the overall most lavish transfer window (a few extra bodies would have been nice), all that matters in the cup is winning the match in 90 minutes.

Scoring 800 goals would be nice, but 800-0 and 1-0 are worth the same in the cup of course, so we’ll take progression no matter how meagre the performance was.

With Scott Brown in tow, there’s the little-known addition of Jamie Murphy, Andy Murdoch, Frankie Musonda and Aiden McGeady in there as well, and those extra subplots will be significant.

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McGeady, at his best, was a great player, however much we hated him, and his best days were at Celtic – he will be champing at the bit to put on a show at Ibrox, aged 37.

And then there’s Murphy, 34, who still has quite a few years left in the game. He could and should have been a lot more in the sport, but for ‘that’ injury at Killie. He was a very good performer for Rangers and that injury basically killed him.

He would love to put on a show at Ibrox, we reckon he still harbours a small grudge against former manager Steven Gerrard for dumping him when he was basically fit again.

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There’s technically Sean McGinty, ex-Republic of Ireland youth international and clearly not a Rangers fan… he’s not had a sparkling career, down in England’s lower leagues, but he’s well-travelled and he’s their captain and he’ll definitely want to get the result at Ibrox.

Andy Murdoch of course older fans will remember from the Journey, a pint-sized midfielder at Rangers who actually did ok. He’s 29 now and had the modest career we’d expect. At the time obviously so many fans bigged the boy up as Andrea Pirlo. Not quite, sadly.

Musonda? ‘He comes from Zambia’… indeed, old friend Fashion Sakala’s international team mate, certainly a decent player, and yes, Ayr United have an international here.

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And lastly of course Brown – it’s all been said, we won’t bore you all with more on him.

But the subplots in this one mean that if we go out there and stroll to an easy 5-0 then we’re utterly delighted, but can’t help feeling this is not going to be the most ‘clement’ of matches with at least 5 or 6 men on the opposition especially eager to get a good result for Ayr, particularly against us.

We will already take that 98th minute penalty quite honestly.

Next round is all that matters.

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