Defiance?

Well it’s been a busy and very testing time for Rangers supporters over the past week.

After the dismal defeat to Dundee Utd, followed by the new low of our humbling at the hands of lowly St Johnstone, the feel-good factor has been conspicuous by its absence from Ibrox recently.

It all started to mount up when around 300 protestors staged clear objections to our current plight following the shocking capitulation to the Saints. After several previous games which ended in booing, the supporters actively opposing the present regime was the first sign of distinct disharmony. Le Guen has enjoyed anything but a successful start to his tenure in Govan, and in post match interviews was pretty honest about the state of affairs, apologising to fans for the embarrassing defeat and admitting it was a serious low of his career. He also added that he will try to come up with a solution, which from the fans’ point of view is hardly fighting talk.

Amidst all this though was Murray’s conspicuous absence, until he eventually broke his silence and called a hasty press conference, sitting shoulder to shoulder with his manager Le Guen, and went as far as he possibly could to defend the man, the club, and to suggest strongly that he had every faith in the Frenchman and our current struggles will only make us a much stronger team.

He also claimed that many of our problems are caused by having such a young team, which is of course tenuous at best given Celtic’s defence is extremely young and they also have major players like McGeady and Maloney, not to mention Miller in their ranks, yet they’re comfortably top of the league.

Nevertheless, overlooking this discrepancy, he was close to bullish in his defence of Rangers, and his defiance in the face of adversity was as strong as ever, almost verging on arrogant.

If nothing else, his performance was designed to dismiss the notion of him being worried – yes, he accepted that we’re rotten domestically, but good in Europe, and he was certain Le Guen, who will apparently have money available, would turn things around for sure.

Fast forward to Saturday, and a home match against Dunfermline. Yet another one we simply had to win; a substantial number of empty seats were in evidence at Ibrox, perhaps the first sign of the fans turning away from the team, and the performance throughout seemed to explain the absentees’ lack of faith. Possession was indeed mostly ours, but it was another toothless display for the majority with zero shots on target until the substitute Boyd managed to score deep into the second half.

Clement was conspicuous by his anonymity, Martin was totally ineffective, and the defence was a long way from solid. The only player who seemed a cut above was Barry Ferguson, currently our best player by a mile. The rest were a ragtag outfit, unsure of what they were doing.

Indeed, Boyd being dropped, Prso starting, Papac dropped, Adam back in, Martin starting; it all added up to yet more curious management from Le Guen who continues to beggar logic with his team selections.

This led to another incoherent performance and it’s hard to see where some smooth flowing football is going to come from in this team.

We did get the victory, but it was one which scraped the barrel.

Following this game was an orchestrated protest against Murray, staged by Follow Follow – they erected a banner which others then tore town, amidst scuffles, and seemingly a police presence was require to diffuse the tension.

These are extremely troubling times, and the future seems bleak, despite Murray’s aggressive claims to the contrary.