Queen of the South boss Wullie Gibson had plenty of positives to take from Tuesday night’s Premier Sports Cup defeat.
The underdogs gave a plucky performance at Ibrox and levelled the game, before Rangers ran out 3-1 winners.
Gibson praised his side and their character before turning his attention back to league business this weekend.
He said: “I’m proud of the players. I said before to them that it would be a tough game at a tough
venue.
“Sometimes you’ve got to take the positives when you get beat and I can take a lot of positives from tonight.
“Character, hard work and discipline, there’s three.
“I said to the boys that hard work would be important as we needed energy all over the park.
“They’ve got good players and needed to match runners. Discipline because maybe you can get caught up in the moment and we didn’t want that.
“The boys gave a good account from themselves here at Ibrox and they can be proud of that.”
After a 10 minute spell when they fell 1-0 behind Gibson could have been fearing the worst but his side dug in deep and got themselves level. The goals they conceded on the night were from mistakes they made.
Gibson said: “It was enjoyable in parts but frustrating in other parts.
“I think the first goal summed it up. I asked the players to contain Rangers for the first 15-20 minutes so to give such a cheap goal away was disappointing but the way the boys reacted and got themselves back into the game, they’ll take a lot away from that.
“I said to them that these are the venues where you’ve got to come and play football and I thought we did that in spells.”
Now Gibson and his squad turn their attention to Saturday’s match with Dunfermline at Palmerston Park.
He said: “Nobody is going to give us three points in this league. I’m not naive enough to think people look at Falkirk, Dunfermline and maybe Airdrie that they’ll be the main teams challenging.
“Dunfermline is in front of us on Saturday and it’ll be a test.
“They’ve not been beaten yet and we need to give the same kind of performance we put in against Rangers if we’re going to get anything from them.”
Yesterday, Queens signed Blackpool striker Ewan Bange on loan until January.
The 20-year-old’s signing came after a recommendation from club legend Stephen Dobbie.
Gibson said: “I’ve had a good look at him in training and he will give us something a bit different. At 6’4 he can give us an aerial presence as we don’t have a great deal of height in the squad. I speak to Dobs regularly and he recommended Ewan. He speaks highly of him, and he certainly couldn’t have a better mentor.”
