Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin has been made to eat his midweek Rangers soundbites as the ex-Celtic defender concedes the Dons were thrashed by the better team at Ibrox.
The former St Mirren manager was mixing the pot in the build up to Aberdeen’s visit to Ibrox this weekend with the Gers under increasing pressure domestically.
Following a draw with Livingston at Ibrox the Gers’ abysmal Champions League campaign continued in Napoli with plenty believing that Van Bronckhorst would get the chop if the result didn’t go Rangers’ way.
But go Rangers’ way it most certainly did as the Dutchman’s team put in arguably their most complete domestic performance of the season to thrash Aberdeen 4-1, but not before falling behind.
That result had Jim Goodwin rationalising a few things at full-time but rewind a couple of days and the Irishman was determined to fire his side up for the trip to Govan.
Goodwin claimed that his side were “very, very confident” of getting a result whilst insisting the Ibrox side are “not in a great place” at the moment. Remarkably, he then claimed he wasn’t playing “mind games” [BBC Sport].
Rangers make Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin eat his words
In the post-match, BBC Sportscene pundit Ricky Foster suggested the opposite and claimed that the comments provided Rangers with “fuel” heading into the game.
Add into that the pressure on the Rangers squad, that disgraceful Aberdeen banner and the situation with Van Bronckhorst, and it adds even more to what was an important win at Ibrox this weekend.
But speaking after the match, Jim Goodwin was a lot less cocky about his team’s chances and resigned himself to the fact Aberdeen were simply outclassed by Rangers on the day.
“I’m extremely disappointed with how the game panned out,” Jim Goodwin told Aberdeen.
“We started okay, the game settled and we came into it, and then scored a good goal from our point of view. That’s what we spoke about all week, trying to be positive and getting that first goal.
“The crowd were getting a wee bit anxious, you could feel that in the stadium, but in fairness to Rangers, they reacted well and scored a good equaliser from their perspective.
“In a fixture like this, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. You can see from our team selection we tried to be positive, we had two strikers up top, so it was a bit adventurous.
“We felt they would be slightly fatigued after their trip in midweek and the travelling, so we thought long and hard about trying to be attacking.
“Today we tried to be brave, we got in front, we wanted to try to cause them problems, which Duk did at times, but in the end, it didn’t work and I deserve the criticism that comes my way for that.
“Ultimately though, they were far better than us in the second half and sometimes, you just have to hold your hands up to that.”
The result means Rangers have closed the gap on Celtic to a single point, with our Old Firm rivals playing Livingston on Sunday, with Aberdeen 4th in the Scottish Premiership table.
Meanwhile, Rangers issued the perfect response to a pathetic contingent of the Aberdeen support in the thumping victory.