Gio van Bronckhorst admitted there’s no excuses for the shock defeat that leaves both Rangers ’ title hopes and his own survival prospects at Ibrox hanging in the balance.
But the beleaguered Ibrox boss insists he’s still the man to turn around a campaign in danger of collapse following yesterday’s shock 2-1 defeat to St Johnstone As if recording the worst ever Champions League group stage performance wasn’t bad enough for the Dutchman, he’s now facing fresh flak after watching his team fall seven points adrift of rivals Celtic in the Premiership flag race.
There were chants of “Gio get to f**k” after Nicky Clark put Callum Davidson’s Saints two up at McDiarmid while a group of around 50 furious Gers fans gathered outside the stadium’s front door to demand answers after the full-time whistle. Still a week shy of his first anniversary in the job, van Bronckhorst knows he’s under major pressure.
But the former Feyenoord coach has vowed to fight on. Asked if he still felt able to turn Rangers’ season around, he said: “I’m confident. I’ll just keep on working, that’s all we can do at the moment, stay together and focus on the next game, that’s all I can do.
“Of course, I have said it many times. If you lose 2-1 against St Johnstone away, for me there is no excuse.
“(The pressure) is already there the last couple of weeks. Of course a defeat doesn’t help. But we have to continue. It is a tough one to take and the loss we had to today.
“We are very disappointed with the result and we need to look forward. It is always difficult to take losses, especially when you are the manager and player of a big club. You are expected to win, that is obvious, and if you don’t win you are very disappointed.
“Of course the determination is always there but you see if you work hard, that is all you can do. It doesn’t mean you always win matches. You have to prepare the team well and today, especially the first half hour we did really well. In the end we played more against ourselves than the opponent.”
Gers have now won just one of their last five games in all competitions having dropped out of the Champions League without claiming a point. “Of course results are worrying,” added GVB. “If you drop points it is always disappointing. At home to Livingston we lost two points and today we lost three points so that is five points in three league games.
“Obviously people are not happy and we are not happy as well. It is what it is at the moment.”
Gers fired out the traps looking to repeat last week’s impressive win over Aberdeen. But despite laying siege to Elliott Parish’s goal for the first 45 minutes and seeing Fashion Sakala head against the woodwork, they went in behind after allowing James Brown to fire a sensational opener four minutes from the opener.
They were left with a mountain to climb when Clark added a second midway through the second half and while John Lundstram hit the bar after James Tavernier had pulled one back, there were only boos at the final whistle. “A 2-1 defeat is always difficult to take,” added van Bronckhorst after seeing his side rack up 27 shots and 20 corners.
“I said before the game you have to start well in these games and I think we started excellent in the first 30 minutes. In the first 30 minutes you can already decide this game with all the chances we had.
“We hit the bar twice and had chance to go in front and score more goals. We didn’t do that then we get a goal against and it only gives them strength.
“We tried to continue playing in the second half but I think we shot ourselves in the foot today. In the end, we tried hard to get more goals, we only scored once. In the end we missed the aggressiveness in the box.
“We had many crosses but I don’t think we touched the ball first, the second ball they cleared. In those moments it as very difficult for us.”
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