NICKY Law last night welcomed the imminent arrival of more new faces at Rangers but insisted whoever arrives faces a battle to get a first-team spot. The Ibrox side are closing in on deals for St Johnstone forward Michael O'Halloran and Brentford midfielder Toumani Diagouraga before the January window closes but Law feels the players who have scored 19 goals in their last four matches will prove difficult to dislodge. As if to illustrate the point, new signing Harry Forrester was an unused sub during Saturday's 4-1 win against Livingston, while Polish goalkeeper Maciej Gostomski couldn't even get a place on the bench.
"The manager has said that once people come into the side they are not just going to walk into the team, they have to earn it and it will be difficult for any new player because we are doing great," the 27-year-old added. "Harry Forrester has come in, but he's not managed to get into the team yet because of the performances we are producing.The last four games we have scored a lot of goals and you couldn't really drop anyone. But that's how it should be."
This routine 4-1 win at a snowy Ibrox moved Mark Warburton's side six points clear at the top of the Championship and allowed them to sit back and relax ahead of yesterday's meeting between rivals Falkirk and Hibs. While O'Halloran and Diagouraga would be enviable additions for the business end of the season, Law feels the Ibrox side have enough about them to take the title in any case.
"We feel the squad we have just now is more than good enough to go on and win this league," said Law. "Obviously, the manager feels we need one or two more. That will only help with competition for places and at a club this size you need that. Hopefully, it will help us get over the line for what we all wanted to achieve at the start of the season."
As much attention as the club are giving to recruiting new talent, they have also been as good as their word in rewarding existing players, with Andy Halliday, Jason Holt and Barrie McKay all being offered improved deals. Law, whose own contract expires this summer, would dearly love to be the next man to stay on.
"I had a chat with the manager a week or two ago," said the Englishman. "I expressed that I would like to stay and it was a positive meeting. The next couple of weeks hopefully, there will be something regarding myself either way. You want your future sorted. For me personally, I've just had my first child there so for me the biggest thing is security."
Law played his part in a team performance on Saturday which Livingston simply couldn't live with. The Almondvale side were four down by half-time, courtesy of a Danny Wilson header, a precise Kenny Miller finish and Martyn Waghorn's 26th and 27th goals of the season. Only a combination of Craig Thomson's apparent determination to keep his red card in his pocket, a fine late penalty save from Marc McCallum to defy Andy Halliday's spot kick, and a low strike from substitute Liam Buchanan allowed the visitors to maintain a measure of respectability about the scoreline.
A year on from an abandoned meeting with Hearts which summed up a frustrating season, the outlook seems far brighter at Ibrox these days. "There's a lot of positives coming out of the club at the moment," said Law. "We have new players coming in, have built up a little bit of a lead at the top and the goals are coming. Everyone's confidence is sky high. For the boys who have been here for the past couple of years it has been really, really tough, but to see it now it's fantastic. The fans are back on side and it's good for Scottish football too because Rangers going back into the top flight is what everybody wants to see I'm sure."
Not exactly everybody. Livi midfielder Sam Stanton for instance, on-loan at Almondvale from the Easter Road club, knows any points gleaned from meetings with Rangers of Falkirk who could help his parent side win the league. "It’s a compliment Hibs didn’t want me to go to Falkirk but I suppose it’s understandable," said Stanton. "Livingston are my priority, but results for them could potentially help Hibs. I don’t have specific instructions to try to get points off Rangers and Falkirk!"
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel