ONE of the reasons Rangers have managed to be so consistently successful in this country is their ability to re-motivate themselves week after week, even when tackling run-of-the-mill games.
There are signs that this
special talent is on the wane, which is bound to be worrying for the manager who needs one more big effort to complete his set of titles before he takes a back seat.
The complacency that was rarely detectable in the Ibrox sides of they last 10 years is becoming alarmingly obvious and the lesser lights in the top division are beginning to catch on.
There have been notable exceptions to this attitude
deficiency, like the 7-0 thrashing of Dunfermline, but teams like Motherwell, Kilmarnock, and St Johnstone have highlighted the dangers of making assumptions when you score the first goal.
Against Killie a few weeks ago at Ibrox, Rangers went into sleep mode after taking the lead, but then found themselves
having to fight hard before swamping the Ayrshire side in the last five minutes.
At Fir Park last week they were in front but ended up level after an apparently mediocre showing in the second half.
Against St Johnstone they looked in sparkling form early on and all seemed set fair when they went ahead after only six minutes through Rino Gattuso.
However, after Brian Laudrup went off with a recurrence of his hamstring injury in 25 minutes, they switched off and went through the motions.
The problem is that, even if they score again, the opposition still senses a lack of total commitment and will keep on plugging away.
Marco Negri scored a second goal near half time, but Saints, who had by then begun to fancy their chances a bit, got a good break with an Allan Preston equaliser almost immediately afterwards.
Perhaps that would have taught old Rangers a lesson, but new Rangers had not taken too much heed. They suffered from the same self-delusion, believing it was all done and dusted, when Negri scored again soon after the interval.
It was not, however, and St Johnstone, undeterred, had their best and longest spell of supremacy, which culminated in a goal by George O'Boyle and sent the Ibrox lot into sweaty session until the end.
The men from Perth deserve great credit for their play, which was enterprising as well as
energetic and, if they had
managed a third goal, it would have been no great injustice.
They had a squad of decent players, none more impressive than young defender Calum Davidson, who could earn his club a hefty transfer fee if he
continues to progress.
Davidson had not played for eight weeks because of a hernia injury, had trained only 10
minutes with the first team, yet did well, maybe even well enough to warrant the lavish praise of his manager, Paul
Sturrock.
''He was a revelation considering that he hasn't played for so long,'' said Sturrock. ''He is going to reach a very high standard.''
The Scotland Under-21 player, who has given up his university studies in engineering to pursue his football career, admitted that he was pretty exhausted in the closing stages, which was hardly surprising.
''Otherwise I felt all right,'' he added, ''I have been doing a lot of swimming with the physio and feel quite fit.
''I thought we played well and after we stopped Rangers from playing we created some good chances.''
He confessed not to be too
disappointed at the sight of
Laudrup having to leave the field. ''That might have made a wee bit of difference,'' he said with a smile, ''He is a classy player. But, once we believed in ourselves, we did well. In the past against Rangers and Celtic, we have been inclined to go out expecting to lose. Maybe the fact that they scored first forced us into having a go.''
The 21-year-old has been
flattered by speculation about his future which, before he was injured, linked him with some English clubs, but is too level- headed to let it bother him.
''I won't pay much attention unless something definite
happens. I am learning all the time with St Johnstone and playing against players like Laudrup, Gascoigne, Durie and Negri is great experience.''
Gascoigne was very subdued after a few bursts of brilliance in the first half. Laudrup was beginning to cause havoc when he had to go off and Durie, who replaced him, never got into his best form. In fact, Laudrup had just made the finest run of the afternoon into the penalty box, leaving a baffled posse of defenders behind, when he pulled up sore.
Laudrup's recurrence of the injury that kept him out for the previous two games is a worry for manager Walter Smith,
especially as he will be without suspended Gascoigne for the next four games, but he has also got to tackle the attitude problem that seems to be creeping into the ranks.
Next league games: Rangers - Hibs(h). St Johnstone - Aberdeen (a).
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 hereComments are closed on this article