Rangers season hasn’t gone to the script Connor Goldson had in mind when he finally put pen to paper on his new contract last summer.
After the fairytale campaigns of 55 and the run to Seville, the Ibrox defender was hoping for another gripping thriller. Instead, it’s been a year of problematic plot twists with fresh frustration only ever a turn of the page away. Rangers’ Champions League campaign wasn’t so much an account of good against bad, more a gory story of what happens when the European elite come up against a side as ill-equipped as Gio van Bronckhorst’s injury-hit squad.
Goldson was among the leading characters to be laid low as the Light Blues produced the worst set of group-stage results ever committed to paper. And without the big Englishman at the heart of his defence, it wasn’t long before van Bronckhorst was written out of proceedings too. Michael Beale was brought in to change the narrative of Rangers’ season but so far the new Ibrox gaffer has found that whatever he’s been able to draft up, Ange Postecoglou has already produced a more polished version over at Parkhead.
The story of Gers’ season could well be defined this weekend if they cannot get a result at Celtic Park on Saturday and are left to fill the role of Premiership runners up yet again. But even if it has to wait until next season, Goldson is clinging to the hope there will be another happy ending to come.
“Yes it’s probably been one of my most frustrating seasons at the club,” confessed the centre-back as he looked back on the period since he agreed his new four-year deal last June. Did I imagine this last year when I signed? No! It’s been hard in every way. We had a managerial change during the season which has been a few years on the bounce now.
“You want a little bit of consistency and hopefully we have that now. Then there was the injury and when I was injured we dropped a lot of points. When I came back we lost a cup final. So it’s probably been the most frustrating one that I’ve had so far. If we go back to when we lost points at the start of the season, we had injuries and the team was all over the place.
“Since we’ve had a consistent team, we’ve gone on a good run. We had me, Ben Davies, John Souttar and Fil Helander all injured at the start of the season. We had a tricky period and we came out of it nine points behind. We are still there now, which is credit to Celtic. They are winning games of football but we’re not going to stop. We’re going to carry on trying to win as many games as we can and see where that takes us.
“I hope [the progress being made shows that we can do better next season], 100 per cent. We’re trying to work every day to get better. There’s a long way to go. We’re winning a lot of games and maybe we are too hard on ourselves. Some games that we’re winning, we’re scraping but it’s probably one of the best runs that we’ve been on. It’s a tough one. Maybe we’re too hard on ourselves but we know the levels we can perform to over the years and we get back to that one week then the next we are a bit off it. It’s frustrating for everyone.”
Results on the whole have made for pleasant reading for the Ibrox faithful since Beale’s arrival, with the Viaplay Cup Final loss the only defeat in 20 since the Londoner’s arrival.
But Goldson couldn’t hide from the fact that more often than not, performances haven’t been an easy watch.
“There have been games of football this season we have won and I haven’t enjoyed it at all,” confessed the 30-year-old. There have been games of football like when we won 4-1 at Hibs and I scored an own goal but I enjoyed the game because of the way the team was playing.
“It felt like it was back to our best. Then there was the Ross County game at home 2-1 and you come off at the end reeling. I feel we should be so much better as a team and we should be more consistent. It’s tough. Celtic have had last minute winners but when you are top of the league you will take anything for three points.
“We are behind and we need to start playing better regularly to keep this run going as long as we can.”
The arrival of Nico Raskin and Todd Cantwell have helped breath some freshness into a squad quickly growing stale.
Beale consulted some of his senior stars before pushing the button on those signings and Goldson hopes he can play a part in ensuring the next batch of recruits are made welcome when they check-in this summer.
He said: “One of the main things the gaffer spoke about was the way we welcome players and wanting a good group.
“Not that it hasn’t been a good group but he wanted to bring the group even closer together.
“He spoke to me about Todd Cantwell coming in and asked what I thought and did I know him from the outside.
“I didn’t know him but we spoke about the talent he has got and what had happened over the past few years and he’s come in and hit the ground running.
“He’s been brilliant and as a person he’s been completely different to what I expected. You can get some right in that sense and some wrong. The manager just wants his group to be as together and as strong as we can so when you go into tough games you know how to be together and grind out results."
