Football Daily would never publicly admit that our life is so meaningless, empty and utterly devoid of purpose that we occasionally spend our leisure time perusing the fan forums of random clubs with whom we have no affiliation just to pass the time. No, that would be embarrassing so it was purely in the interests of diligent professional research that we spent the buildup to one of last night’s Bigger Cup qualifiers scrutinising the long pre-match thread on a forum devoted to one fitba club in particular, all the better to gauge the mood among Rangers fans before their first leg against Club Brugge. Before a ball had been kicked, it was one of cautious optimism that was quickly replaced by fatal realism and no end of radge-induced McEffing and McJeffing a mere three minutes after kick-off. That’s how long it took for the hesitant-to-the-point-of-slumbering Rangers duo Nasser Djiga and Jack Butland to contrive to concede a goal so slapstick (but beautifully finished) that it would be worth resurrecting A Question of Sport for one final episode of What Happened Next?
A game that started badly for Rangers quickly slalomed downhill faster than Franz Klammer and after just 20 minutes a steady stream of irate fans could be seen heading for the Ibrox exits after watching their team go 3-0 down. Having already witnessed Rangers lurch and stumble through their opening two qualifiers like a drunk on his way home after a night at The Fist & Lizard, they had clearly seen enough and decided that, for this season at least, their team’s Bigger Cup jig and the £40m+ windfall that comes with it is almost certainly up. A second-half goal from Danilo took the bare look off Rangers’ side of the scoreboard and left their fans with that nagging feeling of faint hope that makes fools of us all but Ally McCoist gave his former side little more than a snowman’s chance in hell of turning the tie around when discussing last night’s fiasco on the wireless. “On that first-half performance, they couldn’t beat anybody to be honest,” he sighed. “To have any chance they’ve got to score first, that’s for sure but even I as the eternal optimist think it’ll be a big struggle.”
While the crowd at Ibrox had already made their mind up about Russell Martin before this game, it remains to be seen how long Rangers, who have recently burned through managers at a rate that would make even the Watford owners balk, will be prepared to keep him on board in the face of such obvious fan fury. The first appointment of the club’s new owners, 49ers Enterprises, Martin faced the obligatory questions from the press afterwards from behind a table bearing several bottles of Bigger Cup-sanctioned Crocodile Drink which he did his best to view as half-full. “That’s as hard as it will ever be for the players on the pitch,” he blathered of the opening 20 minutes. “I’m proud of how they responded. They all displayed courage in the second half. We recovered properly and we hurt them as much as they hurt us. That goal changes everything.”
In the unlikely event they exist, more level-headed Rangers fans will almost certainly concede their team simply does not have good enough players to avoid the humiliations that unlikely qualification for Bigger Cup will surely bring and with a consolation place in Bigger Vase already assured, their club’s future on the continent is not entirely bleak. However, regardless of where or who they play, there is widespread frustration over Martin’s team selections, player acquisitions and tactics after just eight games. The 39-year-old said he hoped to be “judged in May”, but the fact of the matter is the majority of the Ibrox jury reached their verdict before his appointment in June.
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‘I can feel it coming in the air tonight’. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
