Despite the frustrations, today’s 3-3 draw with Motherwell shows unlikely progress from last season.
It’s not something Rangers fans will want to indulge in too much, but there were positives to come from today’s stalemate. The primary one being how Steven Gerrard’s men failed to give up despite the early set-backs.
Danny Johnson and Carl McHugh both struck early in the first half to put Rangers up against it. At the time of both goals, the situation looked bleak as fans were reminded of last season’s frailties.
Set-backs
However, the Gers deserve huge credit for coming back from this. Despite the two early blows, Rangers responded swiftly on both occasions through Kyle Lafferty. The goals were also scored after lovely passages of play in the build-up.
The key thing to take away from this is the fact that the heads didn’t drop around this Rangers side. Despite being on the ground, Gerrard’s side picked themselves up quickly and did something about it.
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The only thing that cost Rangers today was a momentary lapse from the defence at the death. Outside of that, Rangers showed immense character to turn a situation that looked bleak into their favour.
When Ovie Ejaria notched the visitors’ third goal of the afternoon, it solidified everything fans knew about this side. This wasn’t the team of last season who would cave in and only have about a 30% chance of coming back.
Aggressiveness
Instead, there was an aggressiveness about Rangers after going behind. A combination of class and energy had turned the game around.
Fans will point to last season’s 2-2 draw at Fir Park when Graeme Murty’s side came from 2-0 behind to level. That may be true, but Motherwell were a lot less vulnerable today than on that occasion. Added to that, there was a lot more class in this turnaround than the one Murty overseen last season.
Most pleasing, however, is the fact that this is what Rangers sides of old have done.
Under the likes of Walter Smith and Alex McLeish, Rangers could turn games around and there would be an expectancy that they would do so.
That could be about to return under Gerrard.