Rangers Fan View: The Gers hideous in the highlands

Just when you thought last week, losing to Dundee, was a kick in the teeth, Friday night’s Rangers loss against, then, bottom of the league Inverness via a 2-1 scoreline was just as bad.

Luckily, for us we have to thank our lucky stars that Hearts and St Johnstone are so poor or we could be sitting in fifth place just now.

Europe still remains the target, but we must pull the finger out and get some wins on the board. One win in nine games is not European qualification form, it’s relegation form.

This group of players owe it to the fans to give 100%. They may well be but at this moment in time, it appears to me they are very good at playing hide and seek – because no one can find them.

Moving on to the game itself, we started very brightly for the first 10 minutes – and we were in total control. Emerson Hyndman went close but his effort was saved, and the shape and rotation of the front players was very good. But, as usual, we couldn’t find the net.

It’s like watching the same movie over and over with this side. The beginning is good, it goes flat in the middle and, no matter how many times you watch, the ending always leaves you in a state of sheer frustration and disappointment.

And just before half-time, the inevitable happened. James Tavernier’s lazy clearance landed at the feet of Greg Tansey – he could have gone home and put his dinner on and come back before scoring – because the unadulterated laziness from the midfield made sure he had all day to pick his spot beyond Wes Foderingham.

However, we did start the second half a bit brighter, Jon Toral missed an absolute sitter, and Hyndman saw his effort saved after some lovely one-touch football in the build up. We managed to get level through a Martyn Waghorn penalty in the 67th minute. At that point, we had the pressure on and looked like we could come back and win it. But again, as we had no end product, you just knew that another Inverness goal was on the cards.

The mentally weak did their usual and crumbled when it mattered. This was after Wes Foderingham had saved Iain Vigurs’ penalty and make one other top-class stop to keep the score at 1-1.

The ball went into our box, and the defenders let it bounce so many times without attempting to clear their lines and their ineptitude was promptly punished. Billy McKay backed into Rob Kiernan, but instead of Kiernan going to win the ball and heading clear and taking a boot to the face for his team, he stood off and allowed McKay to produce a top overhead kick finish, but if Kiernan sticks his head in there, he gets a free-kick and the game ends in a draw.

Sheer naivety and that’s the kind of actions that are getting to the fans. Take the hit, put your body on the line, show that you care, show that playing for Rangers means something to you (that goes for all of the players), show that you think the league position and performances have been utterly pitiful. But no, this side has shades of the one that finished third in the Championship. No heart, no will to win, no desire to succeed.

Wednesday against St Johnstone will be no different, I’d imagine, but by Wednesday afternoon, I will have convinced myself that these players can actually win a game of football. Here’s hoping they have too because at the moment they simply look as if they have nothing left to give.

We no longer need media soundbites telling us how much the players are hurting; we need them to actually show us where it matters most – on the pitch. Unfortunately, they do not have it in them. It’s absolutely unacceptable.