[FM17] Knock 'Em Off Their Perch

[tenthreeleader]

Troy Long looked around the expansive new office and wondered if anyone from its past was watching him.

 It might even have been a logical assumption, had he been so inclined to make it. The office overlooked one of the most storied football grounds in Britain -- some would have said the world, in bygone years -- and there was history all over the place.

 What there hadn't been, in recent years, was money. For a variety of reasons. That was one reason why his new employer’s job had lost a bit of its lustre.

 But that didn't matter to Troy, who had just finished a meeting down the hall. He had the job he had wanted all his life, and it was the job he was willing to sacrifice his entire professional life to have.

 From the days he had worn a goalkeeping shirt for the club, he had always wanted to be part of its front office. He had had a successful career there – but when the crowd cheered, it was rarely for him. Rather, it was usually for his mates when they scored, which had been often.

 He only got accolades when someone else had failed to do their job and he had had to bail them out. He didn't mind that. It was part of the job. And so was the criticism he inevitably took when he erred. Thankfully, that hadn't been often, so his reputation with the fans that showed up "every other Saturday" was quite well established.

 That was important. His employer would have died were it not for those fans – fans of their rivals had made sport of trying to declare them so, in fact -- and their loyalty through the bad times had meant, almost literally, everything.

 Those were the people he wanted to reach, the people for whom he wanted to succeed.

 He looked around the office, smiled, and touched the mahogany desk he could now call his.

 "Aye ready," he said.

 Author's notes: FM17 with Home Nations and major European nations loaded. I've been south of the border for too long. Coming home to Glasgow.

 # # #

[mark wilson27]

When I first saw the title I thought you was going to be doing a Man.Utd story . Anyway sir looking forward to seeing if you can knock Celtic off their perch and bring back the glory to Rangers...

[tenthreeleader]

There's a reason for the title and it isn't terribly hard to figure out what it is ... But thanks, Mr. Wilson. Not sure how far this will go but the new features in FM17 are too much not to enjoy.

___

He wasn't even Scottish. But for Troy, it was all about loyalty nonetheless.

 

Rangers FC had given him a chance to rehabilitate his game after falling out of favor in the Northeast of England. Early stops at Charlton Athletic and Bolton had led to four years at Sunderland, including two as the first-choice keeper. Yet, those seasons, had ended with the Stadium of Light becoming a house of darkness.

 

He had never been a particularly big fan of Mick McCarthy, even though the two had won the Championship together (more the manager than the player, he would surely have said) and was an even bigger detractor of Roy Keane, who sold him.

 

In fact, Keane's demeanor made Troy not a particularly big fan of Manchester United, though that wasn't truly fair. His managerial idol had been Sir Alex Ferguson, who had once played for his new employer.

 

It was Sir Alex's captain who had riled Troy.

 

He had had a series of nagging injuries to his feet and ankles - not enough to keep him out of the team, but enough to subtly affect his performance. His managers knew, but when they asked if he wanted to play, Troy couldn't say no. That would have been seen as weakness.

 

The trouble was that neither manager defended Troy in the press for what people understandably saw as substandard performances. When a keeper can't cut or move sharply, or can't plant a foot properly, it will show in his play. Finally, Keane pulled Troy from his XI and then sold him in a January window to Rangers.

 

Troy had been above board at the time concerning his injuries -- when he was sold, he was healthy and ready to play. Rangers understood that and the one and only Walter Smith showed faith in Troy when no one else wanted to. The result was a highly motivated and happy player who led Rangers to two SPL titles.

 

Then Smith retired, Ally McCoist took over, and a particularly nasty collision in the Rangers penalty area cost Troy his career. He had concussion symptoms which wouldn't go away and which, finally, forced him to retire at age 36.

 

The doctors said if he quit playing he could have a regular life. That was great. But there was something missing in his life and it wasn't terribly hard to figure out what it was.

 

He was hired by his old club as a goalkeeping coach but when the financial bottom fell out of the Rangers FC ship, his role was suddenly more important than ever.

 

Staff were made redundant. Investors, owners and chairmen came and went. Craig Whyte, Charles Green and Imran Ahmad, who left. Sandy Easdale and Mike Ashley, who stayed to various extents.  And finally Dave King, who was the man in charge.

 

And the plunge down the leagues. Dear Lord, the plunge.

 

It cost the club its best players but allowed for growth from the youth ranks.That made Troy's job very important as he then oversaw two youth teams as well as the goalkeepers as the price of keeping his job.

It hurt to see the club he loved in such dire straits, and the drop to the fourth tier of the Scottish game only made the feeling worse. Ally McCoist's first two teams walked their respective leagues, as should have been expected, but life in the Scottish Championship proved somewhat harder.

 

A third successive promotion was ruled out by a humiliating two-legged play-in loss to Motherwell and it was first Stuart McCall and then Mark Warburton who were called upon to guide RFC back to where everyone in the organization thought it should be.

 

And so he did. Warburton squeezed every ounce out of a revitalized Rangers team, which won the Championship at a canter, knocked blood-feud rival Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and nearly reached Europe in the process, before losing to Hibs in the final.

 

And then, Warburton was gone. The lure of England proved too much for him and so he went. His reputation was soaring, and he took the opportunity to enhance his life. That was fair.

 

But it left Rangers without a manager before its first season back in the top flight. Nobody felt good about that, especially Warburton, who had done the honorable thing all through the process. 

 

He had not been the ever-popular "Rangers man" when he arrived, but he was one when he left. That didn't ease the angst, but the club's hardest core of support was now looking for someone who they felt would identify with club rather than with personal goals. If they matched, so much the better, but if they didn't, they wanted club to come first.

 

That was understandable. And with crosstown rival Celtic dispensing with the services of Ronnie Deila in favor of the former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, it was important to get this particular choice just right.

 

They'd chosen Troy. That was shocking to a lot of people but Dave King, a Rangers man himself, had made the final decision to hire a rookie manager. He also chose a field boss with a great deal of organizational experience who had helped bring along much of the club's young talent.

 

And so he stood in the Ibrox office once used by the club immortal, Bill Struth. The old master had looked out the window of that office on many a chilly morning to be sure his players had showed up for training properly dressed - which was to say, in shirts, ties and bowler hats - and thought about how things had changed.

 

Back then, each morning's training started with a one-mile walk around the boundaries of the pitch, with Struth watching like a hawk to see if anyone's stride showed any sign of distress. Nowadays, physios and sports scientists did that sort of thing, and of course nobody showed up for training wearing a bowler.

 

Things had changed.

 

Beside him stood his wife, Katie, a petite brunette woman whose personality, and devotion to her husband, were entirely outsized. She slipped her hand into his.

 

"That's what you've always wanted, isn't it?" she said, squeezing his hand softly.

 

"I won't lie, it's true," he replied. "This place reminds you of how things used to be but I can't help but think about how much is new at the same time."

 

"You can be the one to combine them," she said. "I know you can."

 

"Not only can I," Troy said, looking across the pitch, "I have to. Or else I won't be here."

 

He was 41 years old, and in charge of one of the country's major sporting institutions. It was his job to win, and win well.

 

Right out of the chute.

 

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

It was perhaps a bit on the ironic side that Sir Alex's famous phrase was on Troy's lips as he faced the press for the first time.

 

Upon taking over Manchester United, Liverpool ruled the English game. The man who had taken Aberdeen to the top of Scotland and broken the Old Firm's stranglehold on the title had said his job was to "knock Liverpool off its perch."

 

Of course, the one-time Govan shop steward had added an adjective of a most colorful variety in that sentence, but the idea was the same for Troy.

 

Celtic occupied the perch, and why shouldn't they? They had more resources than any club in the top flight and had cruised to championships with ease while Rangers were down the leagues.

 

And now, they were run by an ex-Liverpool man, which made the idiom fit just a little bit better.

 

It obviously wasn't Liverpool which was the target, but rather Celtic; the oil to Rangers' water, the Hatfields to Rangers' McCoys. They occupied the "perch", and it was from that lofty height they would need to be toppled for Troy to keep his job.

 

It was the obvious question, and naturally it was asked immediately. How long would it take?

 

"We think we have the players to make a run," he had answered. "No manager of Rangers is going to stand here and say anything else, surely you see that. Many of these same players reached a cup final last year and we feel we have strengthened that group further."

 

"Has money been promised to you if you need to strengthen?"

 

"Mr. Warburton brought in ten players already. I should think that's enough for the time being, especially since they’re all still on summer holiday, but I can make my case to the board if I need to."

 

"Did he bring in players you don't care for?"

 

Troy laughed. "Doesn't matter if he did, they're all here," he said, a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "But remember, I was part of the back room team so I was aware of what he was doing. My voice in player recruitment wasn't great given my role but it would be silly to suggest that I'm not aware of what these players can do."

 

"Back to the timeline. Did Dave King give you a timetable to get to the top of the league?"

 

"Mr. King wants success. We all want success, every person who has ever pulled on our shirt wants success, expects success and is willing to work for that success. I do not have a set timetable for winning the league, but I am keenly aware that everyone on our side of the city is expecting that it will be sooner rather than later. It's going to take some doing. But my job is now to see it done."

 

"Is this squad strong enough for a title challenge?" Nothing like asking a question that had already been answered.

 

"Much of this squad was strong enough to reach a Cup final a few months ago and we've strengthened it," he repeated.

 

"That doesn't answer my question," the reporter challenged.

 

"It does for me," Troy replied without missing a beat. "Next."

 

The journos huffed and puffed and tried to get Troy to say something inflammatory they could then quote to Brendan Rodgers. But he wouldn't bite.

 

"Look, we'll settle it on the park," he finally said. "If your goal today is to try to drag me into some sort of mind game with Brendan, don't even bother. I'm sure he's got better things to do and I know that I do."

 

The ardor of the press finally cooled off and the news event came to an end. Troy stepped out of the Ibrox media room and headed down the stairs toward the home changing room.

 

He stepped into the place where he had spent so many happy seasons as a player, looked up to see the portrait of the Queen hanging in its traditional place above the players’ changing area on the far wall, and smiled.

 

It was different now. He controlled what went on in this room, for good or for ill.

 

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

Troy's three best girls meant everything to him - Rangers FC notwithstanding.

 

Katie, Carly and Jessie were the reasons Troy worked as hard as he did. Their home in Bearsden, actually in East Dunbartonshire, was his refuge. His wife and two daughters were a never-ending source of love and strength.

 

And, since every vote in their house necessarily came out three to one, they all had a great deal to say about how things were run. 

 

Troy wasn't the only football luminary to live in the district - former Rangers manager Alex McLeish and current Sunderland boss David Moyes also keep homes in Bearsden - but it seemed fitting for a Rangers man to live in a place with that name.

 

Rhyming slang had long since given the Gers the nickname of “Teddy Bears”, so to be a Bear, or a Bluenose, was the highest compliment you could give a faithful Rangers man.

 

Or woman, for that matter. And the former Katie Carlyle was both -- an amazing woman and, after meeting her husband-to-be, a passionate Rangers supporter. Though English by birth, she was in fact that most wonderful of heraldic rarities, actually born in Carlisle, the town which gave birth to the ancient family name.

 

And that name, as a sept of the Clan Bruce, was well known in Scotland too – though Katie herself was a quiet young lady except when it came to her football.

 

She met Troy while he was in exile at Sunderland. She was living on the wrong side of the country and he was living on the wrong side of the Black Cats’ first eleven. They got along famously and she made his long stretches away from the team much more bearable.

 

Then Walter Smith had bought him, and the move north of the border suited them both beautifully. They married after Troy’s first season in Glasgow, and the girls came along shortly afterward.

 

Seven-year old Carlie and six-year old Jessie were brunette like their mother, who had stolen Troy’s heart with huge brown eyes, a figure to die for and a loyalty to his person that he had never seen before. Their relationship was completely committed and wonderfully deep.

 

There was no day so bad that the three of them couldn’t improve it – even the day of his retirement had been sad but not necessarily heartbreaking.

 

Now, they would be Troy’s anchor as he stepped into his first managerial job, quite a large one indeed.

 

When people reminded him of his inexperience in the days following his hiring, he noted that you didn’t have to have been a horse to be a jockey and there was this fellow named Zidane who had done a decent job in his first managerial position.

 

The wags asked Troy if he was comparing himself to Real Madrid and Troy answered that he had problems enough living up to Rangers. He would then give his inquisitor a smile that would disarm him, and then head back to his business.

 

Social media, however, had been fairly unkind to the young manager. Some people wanted track record. Others wanted an older, more experienced man. Others just wanted to be salty.

 

However, everyone wanted to reclaim the Premier League, and that was all that mattered.

 

Troy just went about his business and prepared for the arrival of the players from their summer holidays.  He spent long hours both at the club’s training center at Auchenhowie and at his home watching video of each of his players – old and new – to try to add to his knowledge base about that made them tick.

 

As a goalkeeper, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Troy’s idea of how to play the game started at the goal and worked outword. So he worked. And worked. And worked.

 

And when the day was bad, there was Katie waiting at home, with the girls waiting to give their dad a hug after school.

 

He had kept them away from the limelight – though the atmosphere in most parts of Glasgow meant that this wasn’t as difficult as it might have been had the children been born to a Premiership footballer in England – and that was for the best. Troy wanted things quiet.

 

# # #

[Celtic_1967]

I'd wish you good luck, but well, you know...

[tenthreeleader]

4 hours ago, Celtic_1967 said:

I'd wish you good luck, but well, you know...

Completely understood, my friend. Hope you are well.

___

The other order of business was to build a coaching staff, which had practically ceased to exist when Warburton departed.

 

Assistant manager Davey Weir, a solid Rangers man, stayed. So did goalkeeping coach Jim Stewart, who knew more about the position than Troy did, and as importantly, head of youth development Craig Mulholland. Once Troy’s boss on the youth teams, he now reported directly back to Troy in a rather stunning reversal of responsibility. The call went out for coaches and in they came.

 

Fourteen times-capped Scotland defender Arthur Albiston, who spent fourteen years and 379 appearances as a player and another eleven as a coach at Manchester United, was first in. Known as a stout defender and coach, he and Weir would handle that end of Rangers’ operation for Troy.        

 

Allan Russell, who had been part of Newcastle’s relegated operation the season before, was next in. He certainly knew his way around Scotland, having started his playing career at Rangers before moving to Hibs, Hamilton Accies, St. Mirren, Partick, Airdrie and Killie sandwiched around stints at Macclesfield, Mansfield and Forest Green. He had spent the last few years before his retirement playing in lower-tier American leagues, with time spent at Carolina Railhawks in the United Soccer League before finishing his active career in the beautiful weather of Orange County, California – finishing his career as he had started it, with a team known as the Blues. He was a superb technical coach, gifted in teaching how to control the ball as well as how to shoot it.

 

There were gaps in the scouting team. There were gaps in management. Chief Scout Frank McParland immediately brought in four new men and two data analysts to give him some staff, and the physio staff doubled in size within the first two weeks.

 

Then, there was the matter of a Director of Football, which Troy wanted if for no other reason than to handle the contracts and judge talent. Alan Curbishley caused a bit of a stir when he applied, but the board wasn’t keen on Curbs’ insistence that he be allowed to leave without compensation if he got a managerial offer.

 

So it was that Troy decided to hire a man who was almost certainly on his last lap of the field before retirement. The venerable Alan Hill, whose career had spanned eleven seasons and 255 games with Barnsley, Rotherham and Nottingham Forest, had just turned 72 years of age a few months prior but retained a hawkish eye for talent.

 

Troy’s thought was that the organization had had enough drama, and Hill’s steady and experienced hand on the management till might just slow a bit of the speculation as to what was going on in the Blue Room.

 

Then there was the matter of bolstering areas of the squad where everyone knew they were weakest –along the back line.

 

There were talented players in the center of the park but Troy’s preferred 4-2-3-1 alignment meant five of them would be needed at a time. As such, the loan wires were the preferred way to strengthen. Enter Pedro Chrivella, Liverpool’s prodigiously-talented 19-year old who could do a lot of things. He would cost in terms of wage contribution, but he disappointed everyone when he opted to go to Fulham on loan instead.

 

Enter Arsenal’s equally prodigious talent, Gedion Zelalem, who would actually have been returning after a highly successful loan spell at Ibrox the season before. He was just too talented to let sit there, and the word was that he was interested in coming back. Social media indicated that the fans weren’t as thrilled, but Troy had seen plenty from the German/American and wanted to be the one who helped cultivate that massive talent. Yet he didn’t choose Ibrox – he chose Pittodrie and Aberdeen instead, which raised the eyebrows of more than a few Bluenoses.

 

Never mind, thought Troy, and submitted a bid to the far north of the country for central defender Josh Meekings of Inverness Caley Thistle, a player who could scratch more than one itch at the same time, since he could also back up both full back positions.

 

# # #

 

[tenthreeleader]

The next news didn’t have to do with Meekings, whose club understandably didn’t want to let the 23-year old go for a song. It was from Motherwell, where owner Les Hutchison had said he was willing to sell up and reportedly was ready to do just that to a group who wanted to take the club public.

 

Three of the club’s nine scheduled friendlies were cancelled just before the opening of training due to the Betfred Cup’s group seedings. In a manner similar to the former Johnstone’s Paint Trophy south of the border, the thought was that European Cup/Europa League style groups would raise interest.

 

Rangers’ Group F seeding with fellow Premier League members Ross County, League One’s East Fife and Livingston and Highland League side Buckie Thistle was one thing, but some wags not picking Rangers as favorites because Ross County were holders was quite another.

 

The preseason schedule was a bit ridiculous, with ten matches scheduled to be played – six friendlies and four Cup ties – before the Premier League schedule began.

 

2 July - @ Cambuslang Rangers (friendly)

6 July – Esbjerg fB (friendly)

9 July – @ Crewe (friendly)

13 July – PSV (friendly)

16 July – Livingston (Betfred Cup Group F)

20 July – Buckie Thistle (Betfred Cup Group F)

23 July -- @ Waasland-Beveren (friendly)

27 July -- @ Ross County (Betfred Cup Group F)

30 July – East Fife (Betfred Cup Group F)

1 August - @ Cardiff (friendly)

 

Former Republic of Ireland boss Steve Staunton came on as a scout, the same day that Caley accepted a bid of £325,000 for Meekings. His contract demands were affordable and the deal was done quickly.

 

And with that, the squad reported for the start of pre-season training. New arrivals Clint Hill, Niko Kranjcar and Joe Garner were in top condition along with returnees Barrie McKay and the ageless Kenny Miller.

              

The rest of the team had a much different look from the one which Warburton had used to walk the Championship:

 

Goalkeepers – former Rochdale, Norwich and Blackpool keeper Matt Gilks would be the understudy. With 18 matches of English Premier League experience with the Seasiders, Gilks’ issue was that he hadn’t played a league match at any level in two years. Former Fulham trainee and Swindon mainstay Wes Foderingham had a firm grip on the number one shirt.

 

Defenders – There were plenty of them. James Tavernier had scored ten times from the right full back position the season before, backed up by the promising 24-year old Northern Irishman Lee Hodson.

 

In the middle, there would be a four-way battle for playing time and places. In addition to the newly-acquired Josh Meekings, the veteran Arsenal, Fulham and Aston Villa defender Philippe Senderos was there for experience while Danny Wilson was there for his second tour of duty with the club after stops at Liverpool and Hearts. Still only 24 years of age, to long-time fans he seemed much older. Twenty-five year-old Rob Kiernan was there for competition too but was playing for his eleventh club, counting loans, in ten seasons.

 

On the left side, captain Lee Wallace had the position anchored down nicely, with backup from 37-year old veteran Clint Hill, brought in for veteran experience and toughness along the back line. Hill could also play the center of defense but his lack of pace would make him a difficult selection against some opponents.

 

Midfield – Warburton had left the team with a large number of players but no clear-cut choices. That was up to Troy to figure out now. Defensively, former Livingston, Middlesbrough and Bradford man Andy Halliday figured to earn some playing time but Warburton’s most controversial purchase, perennial bad boy Joey Barton, would get that time first in all likelihood.  Jordan Rossiter, the 19-year old Liverpudlian, was another central midfield candidate alongside Portsmouth, Spurs, QPR and of late, American second-division side New York Cosmos performer Niko Kranjcar. Troy understood the reasons for his signing but wondered if he was up to standard. There would only be one way to find out. Harry Forrester, onetime Aston Villa trainee but late of Doncaster Rovers, was also on hand in the middle. Former Hearts man Jason Holt was another young gun well suited to play the Number Ten role.             

 

Troy’s 4-2-3-1 meant wing players, specifically inside forwards, and there were a few nice options there as well. Former St. Johnstone winger Michael O’Halloran provided depth across the top of the midfield as did 22-year old Josh Windass, son of Bradford City and Hull legend Dean and late of Accrington Stanley.  However, the young man who was arguably the best player at the club, 21-year old Barry McKay, could play all three forward midfield positions, and several of the central midfielders could also play wing roles.

 

Striker – Troy’s preferred alignment called for one striker, and there were numerous options there too. Joe Dodoo, purchased by Warburton from Leicester City, was one for the future. Kenny Miller, on his second tour of duty with the club, was one for the past for the most part, but was still a force to be reckoned with in front of goal. Joe Garner, acquired from Preston by Warburton, would battle the club’s leading scorer, Martyn Waghorn, for playing time in the 4-2-3-1 or could as easily slot alongside him in 4-4-2.

 

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

2 July 2016 – Cambuslang Rangers v Rangers
Friendly #1 – Somervell Park, Glasgow

 The news of the first friendly was hardly that the team overwhelmed one of its affiliates in Troy’s first match in charge, but rather that Niko Krancjar was already on the shelf.

 Troy had complained loudly and for quite some time after teenager Joe McAuley crumpled the Croatian to the deck 22 minutes into the game.

 “Friendly,” Troy barked, but it wasn’t like it helped. Krancjar was carted off on a stretcher with an already-swelling right ankle packed in ice. Friendlies aren’t supposed to go like that.

 The team had taken a bit of time to start moving well in the 4-2-3-1 alignment Troy wanted them to play. Against part-time opposition, chances flowed freely but as might have been expected in the first friendly, Troy’s players were extremely wasteful in front of goal. They hit two goal frames in the first half and only put four of their thirteen shots on target, but still led 2-0 through Waghorn and Harry Forrester, who came on for Krancjar.

 Forrester added a second just after the second half kickoff, and from that point forward it was a struggle just to keep the players interested.  And with so many new players from Warburton’s start to the transfer window, there was a lot of understanding to be built.

 The result was a solid one nevertheless, as it should have been. There was plenty of work to do but it was always better to start that work with a victory.

Cambuslang Rangers 0
Rangers 4 (Waghorn 22; Forrester 29, 48; Miller 88)
H/T: 0-2
A – 3,000 (150 away)
Man of the Match: Harry Forrester, Rangers (MR 8.9)

 # # #

[CFuller]

Meekings looks like a decent signing - and a popular one at Ibrox after this. I had Meekings in my first season at Dagenham, and I'm seriously thinking about bringing him into my Millwall team on FM17.

I really don't like either of the Old Firm, but I'm hoping that you can indeed, to misquote a former Rangers striker, "knock Celtic right off their bleepin' perch". I'm also hoping to see a team like Aberdeen or Hearts push you close and make the title race even more exciting.

[tenthreeleader]

I had the same thought about Meekings. Thank you for making the post -- and while I get that the Old Firm isn't exactly the flavor of the month for a lot of folks, I appreciate your good wishes. From the look of things, Aberdeen appears at least half-decent and if Hearts don't contend Terk will kill me

___

The news on Krancjar was not good. A minimum of seven weeks on the shelf would render his participation in the first matches of the league season virtually impossible.

 The first piece of bad news of the season was one Troy tried to take in stride. Losing a player of Krancjar’s known talent was tough, but to lose him in a friendly against semi-professional opposition was still worse.

 As such, the day after the Cambuslang Rangers match was the first one where Troy came to work preoccupied. He figured he’d have to get used to it.

 Danish Super League opposition Esbjerg fB was next at Ibrox and Troy planned to rotate out much of his squad for the match. The only news he got that was even remotely good (and even that cynical) was that Chirivella, who had spurned Rangers’ loan, suffered a sports hernia during his second training session with Fulham and would be of no use to anybody for awhile.

 Returning home in a bad mood for the first time didn’t set well with any of Troy’s best girls, least of all Katie.

 “It’s a bad day, not a bad life,” she said, hugging him tight before they went to bed. “If you let every setback affect you like this, you might as well turn in your shingle now because you’ll be quite unbearable.”

 Of course, she had said this while wearing the lingerie she knew was her husband’s favorite for her to wear, so she had his undivided attention.

6 July 2016 – Rangers v Esbjerg fB
Friendly #2 – Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

 Esbjerg was a mid-table Danish Premier League team the season before under the management of former Bolton, Swindon, Bradford and Darlington manager Colin Todd. They came to Ibrox with a small squad looking to work hard. Troy met them with a large squad, which didn’t seem quite as willing.

 The 4-2-3-1 hadn’t really taken hold and the fact that it was run by players Troy was already starting to think of as his second eleven didn’t help matters either. The five-times Danish champions ran rings round the 54-time Scottish champions in the first half.

 The only thing they didn’t do was score. Troy tried a few small switches to the tactic which he almost immediately discarded, but the first half was an exercise both in frustration from the standpoint of attacking football and an exercise in solid goalkeeping from Gilks, who did everything he needed to do to keep the game scoreless until the break.

 Troy did have a few sharp words for his team, even though it was a friendly. To be exact, those words were “I expect any group of players pulling on this shirt to fight for it. Whenever you’re ready to start, you should feel free to begin.”

 The second half was markedly better, even from the second eleven. The introduction of Wallace and Tavernier at the full back positions on the hour made an immediate difference, as did the insertion of Waghorn, McKay and Kenny Miller to replace younger players, including Joe Dodoo, who hadn’t performed well.

 One of the other substitutions, young Jason Holt, took the game into his own hands in 68 minutes, with a weaving, twisting run down the center of the park which he finished with a layoff to McKay. His fellow youngster hit a blistering shot into the top left corner of the goal on the dead run to finally break the deadlock and give those faithful who had come out to see the first version of the new season’s team something to cheer about.

 With the first team on the field for the end of the game, Esbjerg never seriously threatened. But Rangers had not played well and that gave Troy something to chew on.

Rangers 1 (McKay 68)
Esbjerg fB 0
H/T: 0-0
A – 15,897 (58 away)
Man of the Match – Barrie McKay, Rangers (MR 8.1)

 # # #

[tenthreeleader]

9 July 2016 – Crewe Alexandra v Rangers
Friendly #3 – Alexandra Stadium, Crewe

 Troy was hoping to see his men rebound from the poor performance against the Danes away to English League One side Crewe. This was why he was so angry when he saw the ball bouncing up and down behind Foderingham in the Rangers goal only six minutes into the contest.

 All four defenders had switched off and Chris Dagnall had blown right past all of them to slot home thanks to some schoolboy defending. Foderingham wasn’t happy and neither was the boss.

 The four defenders, at least two of whom were supposed to have some form of understanding with each other, shrugged it off as a friendly-match accident. Their manager did not see it that way.

 “I don’t know what I have to do to get through to these players,” Troy sniped. His barb seemed to catch Weir right in the forehead. The former captain and stalwart defender didn’t look best pleased either.

 “They’ll come right,” he promised. “But our work habits have to get better.”

 That was undeniable. There wasn’t a lot of positive in watching the first few friendlies. Troy changed the tactic to show more of an attacking intent with five minutes left in a highly lackluster first half – and Waghorn almost immediately scored, but it wasn’t pretty.

 It was like “amoeba ball” you see played by young kids. A mob of players circled around the ball just inside the Crewe penalty area, and the ball squirted loose to Waghorn at the penalty spot. He scored with no trouble to save the team’s halftime blushes.

 But the starters could not find a way through and on the hour Troy started to make his swaps.

 Yet the second-teamers, who had been so abject for much of the Esbjerg match, had something to prove – and they did. Reserve full back Lee Hodson was a fine fill-in for Tavernier, who hadn’t done much, and his highly useful cross into the box thirteen minutes from time found the forehead of 17-year old Liam Burt, one of the prospects from the youth team called up to fill out the bench in Krancjar’s absence.

 And a child shall lead them.

Crewe 1 (Chris Dagnall 6)
Rangers 2 (Waghorn 41; Burt 77)
H/T: 1-1
A – 4,177 (505 away) – The Alexandra Stadium, Crewe
Man of the Match: Chris Dagnall, Crewe (MR 8.3)

 # # #

[tenthreeleader]

13 July 16 – Rangers v PSV
Friendly #4 – Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

Troy hugged Katie tight just before he left for the ground at mid-day.

“Just in case I lose a limb or two tonight,” he joked, and his wife smiled before playfully slapping his arm.

“None of that,” she warned. “You’re as good as they are.”

Troy knew, though, as he drove to the ground, that Katie was almost certainly wrong, at least at this point in the season. The two-time defending Eredivisie champions already had their tickets punched for the Champions League and would be more than a handful for Troy’s young and still-jelling Rangers team.

To make matters worse, the first round of the Betfred Cup was coming up in just a few short days – Livi at Ibrox – and as such Troy needed to save some of his better players for that match. In fact, word was that the board was expecting to reach the final – like the board did any reaching – and if so, that match had added importance.

It was a young Gers team that took the pitch that night, and as Katie took her place in the 1873 Suite to watch the match later that evening, she realized that her husband might have been right. It was the first friendly of the season for the visitors and as such they fielded their first team against Troy’s second eleven, Foderingham excepted.

Perhaps knowing what was in store for his young team, Troy started Rangers in 4-5-1 as opposed to his preferred 4-2-3-1, and from the start of the match PSV started hammering away at Foderingham’s goal without finding a way through.

The knock on the Rangers team Warburton had finished the prior season managing was that it couldn’t defend when it mattered, but on this night they showed an organization that belied their lack of time spent playing together.

The other thing Troy’s players did very well was hold the ball. They had the lions’ share of possession and the only thing Troy could note was that they appeared too cautious when they had it. They looked for openings instead of simply playing the counter game Troy had tried to install – but then, it was the first time the tactic had been used to this point and the players could hardly be faulted for not playing it to perfection.

The teams reached halftime 0-0 and that, in its way, was a victory. “Pleased with how you rallied around Wes,” he told them. “Now it’s time to go out and try to find a goal. Won’t that surprise people?”

The first-teamers were added to the game one by one, but even their presence wasn’t enough to shift the balance of the game. Though attempts at goal were a bit more frequent, the PSV defenders found it far easier than Troy would have hoped to keep his players away from good shooting positions.

The best chance of the match game in 64 minutes when Waghorn forced Jeroen Zoet into a sharp save at his right hand post – and it was the only shot on target Rangers managed in the entire 90 minutes.

As disappointing as that was, especially at home, they also kept PSV off the scoresheet at the same time. It had been a very strong rearguard action, giving Troy hope that his team might be able to hold a late lead against lesser teams more easily than last year’s Rangers had done.

Rangers 0
PSV 0
H/T: 0-0
A – 16,236, Ibrox Stadium (231 away)
Man of the Match: Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, PSV (MR 7.2)

 # # #

[tenthreeleader]

16 July 2016 – Rangers v Livingston

Betfred Cup Group F – Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

 

Just a few short months ago, the clubs were in the same league, playing to reach the same goal. However, the football gods had other long-term plans.

 

Rangers and Livingston had both been in the Championship the season before. But fortune had smiled on the Light Blues as they won promotion, and frowned on Livi, through relegation.

 

They had finished ninth and then lost the playout to Ayr United, who had finished second in League One. Livi’s drop down the leagues had been painful.

 

Troy was just pleased not to have to play the opening match in the Betfred Cup group stages away. Playing at Ibrox was one thing, but the Tony Macaroni Stadium in Livingston was quite another.

 

One of Scotland’s larger Italian food chain restaurants had bought the naming rights to Livi’s stadium and, once the pundits’ indignation had subsided, the club got a cash infusion it could use, having been relegated. The snark, on the other hand, had been a bit more difficult for them to endure.

 

Now, they started their first season in Scotland’s third tier with a visit to Ibrox for a Cup tie in the newly-revamped League Cup.

 

As was the case with England’s former Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, the Scottish FA had come up with the idea of group stages to give clubs a couple of extra home gates and the possibility of facing a bigger club (or in most cases, their u-23s) at home for the smaller clubs.

 

Unfortunately, unless you entered the competition in the Second Round, the only place in the fixture lists to put these added ties was at the beginning, when players were still fighting for match fitness and places. The January winter break took another month out of the scheduling process. So, into preseason the group stages went. That was unfortunate if you cared about the League Cup – and as freshly minted Premiership contenders, Rangers’ board now most certainly did.

 

Rangers managers of yore would have used this competition as a place to play the younglings, to give them match experience against clubs who would want to take their measure. In short, it was good stuff for youngsters – but now, as Troy looked at his team sheet, he saw the names of most of his first-choice eleven staring back at him. This was different. It was a match he needed to win.

 

He handed debuts to Philippe Senderos, Joey Barton and Joe Dodoo and then watched as the visiting team started the match with more strikers than his own.

 

Livi started 4-4-2 while Troy’s men were in 4-2-3-1, with Waghorn in the classic number ten role behind Dodoo.

 

From the beginning, Rangers were in charge and Troy was both pleased and gratified to note it. Chance after chance marked the first half hour but, not as happily, his team continued its wastefulness in front of goal.

 

Waghorn finally made the breakthrough just before the half hour, turning in a surprisingly good ball from Barton which the veteran placed right on his forehead from twenty-five yards.

 

The breakthrough achieved, Troy’s men piled forward, their confidence restored. Just before the half, another of the debutants made his mark as Dodoo chipped keeper Liam Kelly with a patient finish that belied his twenty-one years.

 

Livi had hardly got near the goal in the first half and Troy’s instructions were to be sure they didn’t get much closer in the second. Dodoo killed off the match ten minutes after the restart when Livi didn’t get their lines cleared after Lee Wallace’s simple cross into the six-yard box created utter havoc.

 

Dodoo had the simplest of finishes, a brace, and after another half-hour had passed, a man of the match gong. Not bad for a first day at the office.

 

Rangers 3 (Waghorn 26; Dodoo 40, 55)

Livingston 0

H/T: 2-0

A – 28,374 (347 away) – Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow

Man of the Match: Joe Dodoo, Rangers (MR 8.8)

 

# # #

[tenthreeleader]

20 July 2016 – Buckie Thistle v Rangers
Betfred Cup Group F – Victoria Park, Buckie

It was like a home match in terms of atmosphere. The ten-times Highland League champions had a lovely stadium on the northeast coast, but it only held 5,000 people – and on this day eighty percent of them would support the visiting club.

 Troy marveled at how well Rangers traveled, in the parlance of the business. The trip to Moray meant a nice payday for the home team but the price they paid was their fans being vastly outnumbered by the wave of blue that got off the coaches from Glasgow and the public transport to the ground.

 Coming so soon after the Livingston match, the eleven who had roughed up their League One opposition wouldn’t be needed to face non-league opposition – and wouldn’t be able to, since most of them were still struggling to find full match fitness.

 That meant second teamers for the most part, and players who were looking to impress the new regime to earn playing time. The eleven was almost completely changed out from Livingston, and as expected, the home team parked the bus, daring Troy’s men to try to find a way through.

 For the first twenty minutes, they flailed away but looked like what they were – a team better than its opposition but whose players weren’t yet used to playing with other. Runs were mistimed, passes overcooked, decisions were both poorly made and made at the wrong times.

 But against lower opposition, the players on the park had time to figure things out, and despite their disorganization at the beginning of the match, they were never seriously threatened. And in 24 minutes, the former Hearts man, Jason Holt, scrambled a ball home to put the visitors into the lead.

 Four minutes later they were celebrating again as Joe Garner, the new man from Preston North End, had also dented the twine in his debut, finishing powerfully from fifteen yards when the home team couldn’t clear its lines.

 Despite their early issues, Rangers now led 2-0 within the first half hour, which was pretty good by just about anyone’s measure.

 However, the players then switched off and that allowed Jamie Fraser to ghost between Rob Kiernan and Clint Hill in the center of defense and head past Matt Gilks with some power to put the home team on the scoreboard in a rather shocking fashion.

 Troy wasn’t given to profanities but made an exception in this case, with Weir looking at him with some surprise.

 “Fifth tier,” he snorted. “Like our defenders weren’t even bloody there.”

 Weir advised Troy not to be too hard on the players at halftime and, by the hardest, Troy listened. He did tell them, however, that they had just gone on a hell of a long coach trip for the players not to play their best, and suggested that a better second half needed to be on the cards.

 “It’s a long walk home,” he said, only half kidding, as the players left for the tunnel.

 He wasn’t happy, but the Rangers team that took the pitch in the second half made sure their manager wouldn’t be sending anybody back to Glasgow the hard way. The team put fifteen attempts toward the Thistle goal and Holt cashed in again just before leaving for the day in 67 minutes.

 It wasn’t the huge win everyone wanted, but it was enough to send everyone home happy. And at this stage, that was all that mattered.

Buckie Thistle 1 (Jamie Fraser 39)
Rangers 3 (Holt 24, 67; Garner 28)
H/T: 1-2
A – 4,373 (3,500 away)
Man of the Match: Jason Holt, Rangers (MR 8.8)

 # # #

[tenthreeleader]

Living up to expectations was always going to be a difficult job at Ibrox. Everyone knew that. And falling down the leagues was no excuse – the hardest core of the blue faithful still expected The Famous to carry all before them.

 In that regard, Warburton’s Scottish Cup semifinal triumph over Celtic the season before had set the bar at an unusually high level for the club’s return to the Premiership. Everyone knew the rest – the final loss to Hibs had put half the city in a vile mood as Rangers would also have had European football in their first season back in the top flight had they won that match.

 So as Troy met with the board to go over what those expectations were for the coming season, it didn’t surprise him at all to hear King’s words.

 Reach the semifinals of the Scottish Cup. That wasn’t even at Warburton’s level. Reach the final of the Betfred Cup. That was a different order.

 Oh, and win the league. While you’re at it.

 The league. It was always about the league, and why shouldn’t it have been? These were fans who insisted that “The Dam Busters” theme be played at Ibrox during each and every halftime. Tradition meant everything to them. So why shouldn’t they expect their team to climb back to the top right at the first time of asking? After all, to them it was simple tradition.

 Some of it was the club’s past. Some of it was the club’s culture. But the most important part of that culture was winning, and now Troy was charged with continuing that task. He had done it as a player and now as the boss, he would be expected to do it again.

 After the board meeting, Troy stopped by the Blue Room, which he always did when he needed a refresher course on history. There, an artist was making a sketch on one of the walls near the ceiling.

 The Blue Room is where club functions are held, such as the annual Loving Cup toast is held.

 After the Holditch Colliery disaster in 1937 in which thirty miners were killed, Stoke City requested a benefit match against reigning Scottish champions Rangers to raise funds for dependents of the victims. This was an invitation which Struth accepted – and as a gesture of thanks, Potters chairman Sir Francis Joseph gifted one of 30 Loving Cups, commissioned to honor the coronation of King George IV, to Rangers – the only non-English club to receive one.

 Sir Francis had only one condition attached to his gift - that the Loving Cup be used to toast the health of the Monarch at the first home match of every New Year.

 Rangers were, as a matter of club culture, only too happy to comply, and the tradition lasts to this day. Yet the artist was continuing another tradition which interested Troy even more.

 Every board chairman, captain and manager of Rangers has their portrait somewhere in the Blue Room. For the time being, that included chairmen Craig Whyte and Charles Green, and Troy wasn’t sure what would happen to the images of those two gentlemen.

 Now, though, the artist was sketching Troy’s picture in the spot right next to Ally McCoist’s high on the portion of the wall reserved for managers. Super Ally was the ultimate legend as a player, the club’s all-time leading goal scorer, but somewhat less of a legend as manager. Still, he had helped guide the club back up the leagues and his devotion to the Gers was beyond question.

 To be in such august company meant something to Troy Long, which was one reason he occupied the position he now held.

 As he spent a moment watching the artist work, Troy suddenly thought that “The Dam Busters” wasn’t such a bad tradition after all.

 # # #

[tenthreeleader]

23 July 2016 – Waasland-Beveren v Rangers

Friendly #5 – Freethiel, Beveren, Belgium

 

“Good thing I’m not a betting man.”

 

Troy wasn’t in an especially good mood as he surfed The Scotsman’s website on his phone while the team ate breakfast. They were in Belgium for a friendly placed quite inconveniently between the third and fourth matches of the Betfred Cup group stages, and he was looking at the league odds.

 

Celtic were, naturally, favored. That should have been no surprise. Evens, though – now that was a bit surprising.

 

The bookmakers had placed a 4-1 price on Troy’s head to take the team to the summit – not bad odds, but still, seeing them in print had raised his competitive juices to the point where they affected his mood.

 

The home team wasn’t awful – twelfth in the Jupiler League the preceding season – and away, they would be a test. Unfortunately, they weren’t coming at the right time. The only clash in the group stages that really mattered – holders Ross County away – was four days away and the desire to not have to qualify for the second round as a second-placed team was starting to force its way to the front of the manager’s mind.

 

Rangers already had the best goal difference in the competition, but Troy didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Both of the Group F matches on the day had resulted in upsets – lowly Buckie Thistle won away by a goal to nil at League One East Fife, and Livingston had beaten Ross County on penalties. By the competition rules, that meant two points for Livi and one for the holders, so Rangers would go into their match with the Staggies leading them by two points in the group table.

 

Troy’s pride had been dented by the odds. Clearly Celtic should be favored – financially they were still in much better shape than Rangers and as such had had several years to strengthen their squad while Rangers were rebuilding and reclimbing the leagues.

 

But Troy’s Rangers had won the league when he played there and it was ingrained in the minds of fans that first place was where his team belonged. To see his Light Blues dismissed before the season had even begun was galling.

 

So his directions were simple. He wanted the odds posted in the home dressing room at Ibrox.

 

“I don’t want anyone who puts on this shirt to forget what people think of their chances,” he told Weir, who nodded. Weir had played in the famous 2010 Cup final where Kenny Miller’s goal seven minutes from time had given a nine-man Rangers team a famous 1-0 win over St. Mirren, and knew a thing or two about overcoming odds.

 

It was galling and annoying, and with the Ross County match approaching, Troy put out his rotated squad to see what it could do against the Belgians.

 

The answer, to his pleasure, was “more than he had thought”. The team was starting to come together and the 4-2-3-1 was starting to create chances with a fluency that was starting to please Troy.

 

Forrester began things in thirteen minutes with a cracking drive from just inside the eighteen yard box which handcuffed Hassan Hegelstein in the Waasland goal. The keeper got a strong hand to the ball but didn’t have his angle quite right, so a shot that would ordinarily have been palmed round the post instead found the lower corner anyway to put Rangers into the lead.

 

The breakthrough achieved, Troy’s men concentrated on playing from the goal outward. In this they succeeded admirably, holding their hosts to only one decent opportunity in the entire first half.

 

Referee Eddie Chartier, though, had seen fit to card two of Troy’s defenders and Rossiter within the first 24 minutes, forcing Troy’s hand in substitution a bit earlier than he had planned. Wallace had been booked within the first ninety seconds for what seemed like an innocent challenge, as the referee showed he meant business.

 

So the second half saw defenders coming into the match earlier than usual, with the idea of playing with ten men not appealing to anyone in blue. And as expected, the regular players who came on in the second half turned things up a notch. Not enough to score again but enough to keep the home team away from goal with some comfort. Troy’s late switch to 4-5-1 to see how his team held a lead also worked.

 

Everything worked. There would come a day when it wouldn’t, but this wasn’t it.

 

Waasland-Beveren 0

Rangers 1 (Forrester 13)

H/T: 0-1

A – 3,873 (409 away), Freethiel, Beveren, Belgium

Man of the Match: Harry Forrester, Rangers (MR 8.3)

 

# # #

 

[tenthreeleader]

This one was a bit different.

 The expectations were still the same, mind you, but this was the match Troy had been looking for. The first test for his team against a fellow Ladbrokes Premier League opponent – and the holders of the Betfred Cup, Ross County.

 Like their crosstown rivals, Rangers were expected to carry all before them and as such, the preparation for Ross County was fairly intense by comparison. Buckie Thistle was one thing – an opponent worthy of respect – but the holders were quite another.

 The win in Belgium, nice though it had been, had set up the team fairly well for the trip to Dingwall. It was the classic ‘trap’ match and Troy knew it.

 As he lay in bed with Katie the night before departure, he was having trouble concentrating on the show they were watching.

 Katie Long knew her husband all too well, and finally, with a soft smile, she turned off the set and laid her head on Troy’s shoulder.

 “You might as well tell me,” she said. “What’s bothering you?”

 “Nothing that ought to be,” he said almost immediately. “Just thinking about getting everything right this time around.”

 “You know full well you’ll qualify when you play East Fife,” she said. “No sense in putting pressure on yourself.”

 “We are expected to win well,” he said. “We’ll have every chance of taking something out of the match but it’s our first shot against a Premier League opponent since last year’s team beat Celtic. We have to find out if we have the kind of squad that can compete night in and night out in the top flight.”

 “You do,” she said immediately.

 “You’re my wife. You’re supposed to say that.” Troy smiled at Katie and kissed the tip of her nose.

 “You need to spend a little time with the girls after this stretch of matches are done,” she advised. “They’re starting to wonder who their daddy is again.”

 “I should hope it’s me,” he teased, holding her close.

 “Of course it is,” she smiled, placing the palm of her hand on his chest. “But they miss you. I understand why you have to be away, that’s football, but they don’t. If there’s a place you can take them soon that would be great, before their school begins.”

 Carlie was now seven and Jessie was now six, so they were gone long enough to give their mother some peace during the day. Not that she liked that idea entirely, mind you – the Long family was very close in everything it did and meeting the girls after their school had been a great daily ritual for Katie last term.

 And so it would be this time as well, just as soon as their father found time. That bothered him a lot, but he had to do what he had to do and so did they. Still, though, Katie had been right.

 Carlie and Jessie deserved “the best of me, not the rest of me”, as the saying went, so he started scheming. That was the most enjoyable part of his day.

 27 July 2016 – Ross County v Rangers
Betfred Cup Group F Match #4 – Global Energy Stadium, Dingwall

 It wasn’t even three minutes into the match and referee Willie Collum was already into his cards, with Tavernier adjudged guilty and Troy adjudged disgusted.

 Rangers’ away support, never known for its kindness toward officiating it considered slanted, was already grumbling – and in a few cases, more than that – in the direction of the official, who had gone to his cards for the very first foul of the match, a shoulder charge which had sent the Staggies’ Craig Curran off the ball and in the general direction of the advertising hoardings.

 Tough, but fair, in Troy’s mind, but not in the official’s, and that opinion mattered a lot more. You could see Rangers’ defenders recalculating how aggressive they could be – which had been the whole point of the referee’s card in the first place – but they calculated wrongly, as 18-year old striker Greg Morrison wormed his way between Meekings and Senderos to beat Foderingham to his right post twelve minutes into the match.

 Like a jack-in-the-box, Troy was off the bench and to the touchline, for a good, old-fashioned shout to his defenders, neither of whom had accounted for the teen titan.

 It wasn’t an especially good first half, for obvious reasons. Possession and chances flowed fairly easily but the Staggies proved resilient in front of keeper Aaron McCarey. The shots, with the exception of a lot drive from Waghorn near the penalty spot which was deflected behind for a corner, were from range and of low quality.

 This wasn’t an especially scintillating Rangers side Troy was watching and the more he watched County’s rearguard performance, the more admiring he became of the home side and the more frustrated he grew at his own.

 Rangers had 56 percent possession at half when Collum blew for the intermission, having made sure to book Meekings first. That set the stage for an understandably upset Troy Long, who now put it on the line for his players.

 “Not happy with what I’ve seen,” he said. “Not happy at all. Don’t care if it’s early, don’t care if it isn’t a league match. What I care about is seeing you people wear that shirt with a little more pride than I’m seeing in some of you. You’re still playing for places out there, so if you want one, now’s the time to bloody earn one.”

 With that, he sent an unchanged side out for the second half, and immediately it began to create even more chances which came to naught. The ball movement was good, the movement off the ball had some purpose, so he couldn’t fault effort, but the results were lacking in a real and profound way.

 The match passed the hour mark and Troy dialed up the pressure on the Staggies, moving up the back line in an effort to recycle more of Rangers’ considerable advantage in possession, and then Forrester made something happen. Cutting sharply inside from the left, he laid off for Joe Garner, and the front man’s return ball found Forrester surrounded by three County defenders.

 That meant no one was marking Waghorn, so Forrester’s seeing-eye ball through the defense found the striker in space by the penalty spot. Just like that, it was level at 1-1 and it was immediately better stuff from the visitors.

 Troy was starting to wonder if there was a way through the Staggies when Waghorn found one, and once they had been breached, the whole outlook of the Light Blues changed. Troy didn’t think much of the tie-breaker in the competition – the winner of a penalty shootout would receive two points and the loser would get one – so he tried to figure out a way to come up with a winning goal in regulation that was more to his liking.

 Waghorn and Forrester, who had done so well to create the goal, left in tandem having given all they had, replaced by O’Halloran and Holt respectively. Holt immediately got himself into the match, teeing up Garner for an unsuccessful effort – but the striker then found Joey Barton, of all people, who beat McCarey with a gorgeous rising drive from just outside the D of the penalty area eight minutes from time.

 From nothing to something. A few minutes later, the holders were beaten (and thanks to other results, eliminated) and Rangers’ progress to the Second Round was assured.

 Ross County 1 (Greg Morrison 12)
Rangers 2 (Waghorn 64, Barton 82)
H/T: 1-0
A – 4,863 (1,636 away)
Man of the Match: Joey Barton, Rangers (MR 8.3)

 # # #