A newly-found winning mentality is threatening a title-challenge, according to Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday.
The former Livingston man came back to haunt his former club yesterday in a 3-0 win at Ibrox. It was a win that moved Rangers up to second and kept them just two points off Celtic at the top of the Premiership.
Halliday acknowledged that his own performance wasn’t up to his own high standards – praising his team-mates for digging him out of a hole. Yet, in truth, it was a moderately average performance from many in light blue against Livi.
The difference now, however, is the fact that they’re grinding out good wins when not at their best. This is something Halliday was keen to acknowledge on Rangers TV, where he spoke after the game.
“It was a difficult test. Over the years we’ve been guilty of when we’ve been at our best that we don’t pick up results.
“I think that’s refreshing that we’ve maybe not played at out fast-flowing, attacking best but managed to get a victory in the end.
“If you want to be in a title-race and pick up medals at the end of the season, you’ve got to win those types of games. Eight weeks ago we were in that type of game at Livingston but never got the victory so it’s good we flipped that round today.”
The games you should win
Rangers’ biggest problem in recent years has been not winning the games they should. Last season, the club won just 13 of their 22 home matches under both Pedro Caixinha and Graeme Murty.
That trend wasn’t much better under Mark Warburton in his first and only season in the Premiership. He managed just 12 of his 18 before leaving the club three month before the end of the season.
Under Gerrard, Rangers have now managed to win all of their home matches domestically barring the Kilmarnock draw. This shows that the mentality has improved massively this season under the new-man.
A combination of better players and confidence has seen Ibrox return to its glory days so far. Of course bigger tests still lie ahead over the course of December. Aberdeen and Celtic will take the trip to Govan next month, and those matches will go a long way to telling us all whether this famous stadium is truly on its way to being a fortress once more.
In the meantime, Halliday and Rangers should be delighted with their performances.
