Springing a Leak

Following the excellent defensive performances Rangers fans were witness to at the start of the year, the advent of springtime has seen Rangers concede goals at a ridiculous rate. From losing three goals in January and two in February, March has seen Rangers lose 6 while the first game in April has seen the team shed another three. The last of those being the bitterest pill to swallow as with the last kick of the ball Raith equalised and thus denied Rangers a victory and promotion at the first time of asking.

Mark Warburton, when questioned during his most recent post-match interview, said that he was mystified why Rangers did not take all three points from the Raith game. Few Rangers supporters I would imagine share his mystification, as the defensive flaws are all too obvious and as intelligent and accomplished a defender as David Weir was, he surely is not mystified either. A more pertinent question would be why Rangers can’t defend a lead with seconds to go and in almost the last minute of the match manage to concede both a penalty and a goal, when promotion was seconds away.

Warburton has defended his team and his central defenders in the face of relatively minor criticism this season. However, it’s become obvious to many that the central defensive partnership of Danny Wilson and Rob Kiernan are likely to struggle when Rangers eventually secure promotion. Additionally, the jury is very much still out that Dom Ball can adequately fill the role of defensive midfielder. Shipping nine goals in three games against Falkirk, QoS and Raith is does not bode well for results against Premiership teams and Rangers cannot continue to rely on outscoring opponents, because having to score four goals per game is an unrealistic expectation and one no football team should be founded on, in any case.

The mitigating circumstances for the recent results revolve around 2 main points: Firstly, that the league is essentially already won so the team has taken the foot off the gas somewhat and secondly, that Rangers style of play leaves gaps at the back as a relatively poor defence have no real protection from midfield. Both are valid to an extent. However, they do not provide mitigation for the individual errors that both Kiernan and Wilson are prone to. In the end, it does not matter what the excuse is – and putting aside the looming Celtic cup tie - the flaws have to be addressed next season, because we will not score four goals every game and will have to defend against better teams than Raith and Falkirk on a weekly basis.

Warburton and his players have done a fantastic job of turning round Rangers fortunes on the park in a very short space of time and are on the cusp of achieving the holy grail of promotion at the first time of asking. It is an achievement that should not be underrated. Kiernan and Wilson are part of that achievement and should be proud of it. However, we cannot escape the fact that promotion is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the struggle to tackle the most difficult obstacle which Rangers have to overcome: that of winning the Premiership. That is the goal and by the first game of next season, the Championship race will be consigned to a footnote in history. As much as the current crop of players have done a sterling job in achieving promotion this season, sentiment cannot play a part when the squad is being added to and a team being assembled for our assault on the Premiership.