GRAEME Murty, the Rangers caretaker manager, last night insisted the Ibrox club could still finish second in the Ladbrokes Premiership despite falling six points behind Aberdeen in the table.
Rangers suffered a major setback in their bid to come runners-up in the league when they slumped to their first defeat to Dundee at Dens Park in nearly 25 years yesterday.
Murty, who was put in temporary charge of the team when Mark Warburton departed earlier this month, admitted the performance on Tayside had been unacceptable.
However, the former Scotland internationalist denied they had scuppered their chances of coming second in the Premiership - even though Aberdeen moved further ahead of them with their win over Kilmarnock.
“There’s a long way to go,” he said. “If we apply ourselves and hit maximum heights anything can happen.
“There are more than enough characters in the squad to turn it around. We just need them to come to the fore, grab the game by the scruff of the neck and change the manner of it.”
Rangers are looking to appoint an interim manager to take charge of the team until the end of the 2016/17 campaign.
But Murty, who had been in charge of the under-20 team, stressed the upheaval and uncertainty at the club had not had any bearing on the poor performance and disappointing result against Dundee.
“It’ll come as it comes, the players nor I can be control of that,” he said. “They can only be in control of their attitude and physicality when they walk onto pitch.
“There is no other time to go and put it right other than on the pitch. They need to be ready to go.
“You saw a team that struggled to turn it around when things went against them. When your confidence takes a knock that can be a symptom.
“The disruption has got nothing to do with players showing the right attitude and commitment. They were fully prepared, they know what it meant, that they would have a battle and would have to more than match that.
“But I’ve been honest and told them they didn’t do that for 45 minutes. The fans have been through the wringer and they deserve better than we gave them.
“We can say we’ll endeavour to put those things right. At half-time we addressed certain issues but we need to be better than showing commitment.
“Right now, I’m just thinking of this game. The far-reaching bits of the league and who’ll finish where? I’m not concerned with that.”
Clint Hill, the Rangers centre half, had to leave the field in the first half after suffering a clash of heads with Dundee player Mark O’Hara.
Hill is now a doubt for the Premiership meeting with Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Highlands on Friday night. “He complained of blurred vision and the doc is now assessing him,” said Murty.
Murty praised Paul Hartley’s side, who moved into the top six with the victory, for how they performed and admitted his team had failed to match their desire.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. “It’s not really easy to put in towards the emotions myself and the players went through.
“We have to be better than that. It’s not acceptable, we know that and they know that. We’ll take this on the chin. But there’s no doubt, that’s not acceptable.
“They were particularly aggressive. There was an organisation and they tackled hard. We didn’t match that until half-time.
“Dundee had made the game what they wanted it to be. If you give them 45 minutes and a two goal head start it’s hard to get back into it.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. I didn’t think we got any control on the game, managed to disrupt pattern and shape. We didn’t implement the things we wanted to do and we didn’t control the ball and pass it the way we expect them to.”
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