MARK Warburton, the Rangers manager, accused the critics of disrespecting his players after the Ibrox side took out the frustrations of their midweek League Cup defeat to St Johnstone out on their Ladbrokes Championship rivals Morton. A hat-trick from Martyn Waghorn and one from James Tavernier saw the Glasgow giants move nine points clear of their nearest challengers at the top of Scotland's second tier to help banish the memory of their 3-1 reverse to the Perth side.
"The players were ready," said Warburton. "They were riled by some of the comments, they trained really well and there was no doubt we were going to go out and start well. I knew Jim [Duffy, the Morton manager] would have prepared his team accordingly, but we were good in that first half hour. I would say they [the players] were hurt by it. It was a little bit disrespectful. They've now played 13 games and won 12. Everyone loses a game of football. We'll learn from it. But I just thought some of the comments were a little bit over the top considering we had lost one game of football."
Midfielder Andy Halliday admitted the dressing room had been fired up after the midweek setback, their first of the campaign, and admitted he had been surprised by how much the supporters had stuck behind this group of players. "It was important we bounced back after Tuesday night," said Halliday. "It was good to have a game so quickly after such a disappointing result. We started with a high intensity and that has been lacking the last two or three games. We had something to prove – we wanted to prove something to ourselves. We want to prove we can maintain a consistent level every game.
"Such are the high demands here that a defeat is unacceptable at a club like Rangers," he added. "But I thought the fans were different class and that’s probably because they are buying into the way we want to play the game. And they came here in their numbers to Greenock and got right behind us again. As players we were frustrated because we want to win every cup we are in. We got knocked out and we were naturally disappointed but we have goals we want to achieve this season so it was important to bounce back."
Jim Duffy, the Morton manager, bemoaned the individual errors which had cost his team but admitted his side had been second best. The opening goal came from the penalty spot, after Ross Forbes had rashly dived in on Nathan Oduwa. “Rangers had a bit of criticism after the midweek game and you could see that fired them up," said Duffy. "They were relentless for the rest of the first half and we just had to hang on in there and work hard. I said to the players before the game that 25% of Rangers goals had come from dead ball situations - whether that was a penalty, free kick or corner. They’d already had six penalties this season so we warned them not to dive in - but we dived in and gave away a penalty. That is the frustrating thing but you must applaud Rangers’ style of football because it’s very pleasing on the eye - providing you’re not the Morton manager!"
Having beaten Premiership Motherwell then gone down heavily to Rangers in the space of one week, Forbes, the Morton midfielder, said he felt Rangers would be competitive were they in the top flight. "I think Rangers would more than hold their own in the Premiership," said Forbes. "They are far superior and cup games are a one-off. Over the course of a league season they’d definitely be up there challenging."
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