By Alistair Aird

Steven Pressley was the heir apparent back in the day. As a young, aspiring centre back, Pressley was going to develop and mature and establish himself in the Rangers first team after the indomitable Richard Gough retired. But despite appearing in Rangers’ first-ever Champions League group stage match, it didn’t work out for Pressley. After making 56 appearances, ‘Elvis’ left the building when he joined Coventry City in October 1994. And after spells at Tannadice and Tynecastle, he became one of the few to cross the Old Firm divide when he signed for Celtic in December 2006. Pressley also picked up 32 caps for Scotland.

After hanging up his boots, Pressley embarked on what until now has been a rather unremarkable managerial career. He has had spells in the hotseat at Falkirk, Coventry City, Fleetwood Town, Pafos, and Carlisle United. And after four years as Head of Industrial Development with Brentford, Pressely was back in Scottish Football when he was appointed as Head Coach of today’s opponents, Dundee, in June.

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The announcement didn’t exactly inspire any confidence that a side that had been in the throes of a relegation dogfight last season wouldn’t suffer the same fate this time around. And results thus far have reinforced those fears, with Dundee losing against Airdrieonians and Alloa Athletic in the League Cup before suffering a 2-1 defeat at home against Hibernian on the opening weekend of the campaign.

This should have been the proverbial formality for Rangers. Having bounced back from dropping two points a week ago against Motherwell with a comprehensive 3-0 midweek win over Viktoria Plzen, everyone associated with Rangers saw this as another opportunity for the players to prove that they could do the business in the humdrum matches in Scotland too. Too often in the recent past, Rangers have contrived to follow European elation with domestic drudgery. This fixture therefore provided the group with a platform to show all and sundry that Russell Martin was starting to mould not just a squad that had the ability to play fast-paced, attacking football but one that had the proper mentality and mindset to bring success at the football club.

James Tavernier and Nico Raskin ‘stood down’ against Plzen. This was how Martin badged it, but the rest of us preferred to stick with the term ‘dropped’. It was a bold move by Martin who was clearly irked after the 1-1 draw last Saturday. But it was vindicated with a wonderful performance that all-but-sealed a place in the play-offs for the Champions League group stage.

After the match, Martin hinted that it would be rare that he would select the same XI for every match. Changes would be made, rotation would be the order of the day. But he resisted the temptation to make any alterations for this one. The XI that crossed the white line at the start on Tuesday did so again as the white numbers on the stadium clock ticked towards the ridiculous 17.45 kick-off time.

Aside from another Trojan-like display from Cyriel Dessers and an accomplished performance from Lyall Cameron, the biggest takeaway from the win over Plzen was the width in the team.

Rangers have a rich history of great wingers. In the 1960s, there was Davie Wilson and Willie Henderson, while a decade later, the wings were graced by Tommy McLean and Davie Cooper. Cooper still wowed us in the 1980s and so did Mark Walters. In the 1990s, there was Brian Laudrup although he was given free rein and didn’t really hug the touchline or make a beeline for the bye-line like wingers normally did. And in the early 2000s, Peter Lovenkrands, Claudio Caniggia and Neil McCann. But since then, exciting, edge-of-your-seat wingers of any renown have been conspicuous by their absence in the Rangers player pool. But on recent evidence, Martin is looking to buck that trend.

On Tuesday, Djedi Gassama was a constant threat on the left, adding to his goals against Panathinaikos with a brace. And on the other flank, Oliver Antman caught the eye too, having a shot cleared off the line, winning a penalty kick and providing a delicious assist for the third goal of the evening. The fact that he had enjoyed such a delightful debut having only been in and around the club for 48 hours was remarkable and served to whet the appetite that Antman would be enthrall and excite as the season unfolded. On top of all that, there will be scope to make use of Mikey Moore once his international clearance has come through. Exciting times indeed!

After a day of intermittent sunshine, the skies above the stadium were turning grey as kick off approached, prompting the Premier Sports team stationed trackside to unfold their umbrellas. Perhaps that wasn’t just to shelter from the rain, though, as the on-pitch sprinkler system was in full flow no doubt to slicken the surface to give the ball some zip as the boys in blue passed it around at pace. Unfortunately for Connie McLaughlin, Allan Hutton and Tony Docherty, the water was projected beyond the touchline too.

A terrific Tifo that urged the players to ‘step up and play’ greeted the players as they emerged from the tunnel and as Dundee, clad top-to-toe in white, got the match underway, the cry from the stands was ‘no surrender.’

The opening 20 minutes of the match were turgid. The game lacked any tempo or fluency, and there was none of the zest and zip that we had seen against Plzen. Dundee had a game plan to suffocate and stifle, and it was working. Despite enjoying 66% possession, the passing from Rangers wasn’t incisive enough to pierce any holes in the Dundee rearguard. And it wasn’t until the 18th minute that there was a shot on goal, Joe Rothwell dragging a shot from distance wide of target.

Jefte earned the first corner of the game after 21 minutes. After a bit of head tennis in the box, a second was won, but perhaps summing up how it was all unfolding, Diomande, looking it seemed to pick out Rothwell on the edge of the area in a pre-rehearsed move, overcooked it and sliced the ball out of play on the opposite side of the pitch.

Gassama, with four goals in Europe to his name, had an opportunity to break his domestic duck when he was picked out in the box by a pass from Antman. His curling shot on Tuesday was unerring. The accuracy of this one was such that the patrons in the Broomloan Rear had to duck for cover.

Dundee were finding their feet, taking confidence from an almost trouble-free opening half hour. And after they forced their first corner, Diomande had to thwart a shot from Finlay Robertson before a looping header struck the post and rebounded into the grateful arms of Jack Butland. Moments later, another header from point-blank range was pawed onto the post by Butland. The flag of the assistant referee meant the goal wouldn’t have stood, but it was alarming that the best openings to score had been carved out by the visitors.

As the clock ticked on to 37 minutes, Don Roberston, who had been even more ragged than Rangers, awarded a free kick some 25 yards from goal after spotting a tug on Dessers’s jersey. Rothwell sized it up, but his effort glanced off the wall on out for a corner. The fact that effort was only the fifth on goal from the home side – none of which were on target – provided further evidence that this had been a first half to forget. Domestic bliss, it appeared, was still some way off.

Robertson was front and centre again as half time approached. Antman looked to have been taken out in the box. There were howls for a penalty but despite placing his whistle to his lips, Robertson elected not to point to the spot. The VAR officials backed his call too.

Once again, breaking down and piercing the low block was proving difficult for Rangers. An age-old problem in recent history that we didn’t want to see repeated was playing out before our eyes for the umpteenth time. It was too safe too often. No one seemed willing to take that risk, play that daring ball that could have created an opening. Was the issue once again mentality just like it had been last weekend?

There were no personnel changes at the break, but there had been a shift in the weather. The Leaden-skies pre-match had broken out into swathes of blue and areas of the pitch were bathed in the evening sunshine. The question now was, would the Rangers performance change as much as the weather had?

Five minutes after the restart, Gassama danced his way into the box and teed up Diomande, but his effort was smothered by Jon McCracken in the Dundee goal. The Rangers number 10 should have found the net, and he was duly punished when Dundee went up to the park and took the lead. The defending from a free kick was weak and Ryan Astley looped a header beyond Butland. Not even a VAR check for a possible offside could spare the blushes either.

Boos were ringing out not long afterwards as Martin made a double change. Off came Cameron and Diomande and on came Raskin and Dowell. The jeering was directed at Dowell and while he is not highly rated among the majority of the supporters, the negativity that greeted his introduction wasn’t called for. As frustrated as everyone was, this was a time to back the players not barrack them.

Rangers’ problems got worse after 59 minutes. A careless pass from Souttar in midfield was punished when Finlay Roberston was released through the middle. Nasser Djiga too one for the team when he impeded Dundee’s number 10 but as last man, Robertson had no option other than to brandish a red card. If Rangers finish the job against Plzen on Tuesday, the next league game is against Celtic and Djiga will be suspended.

A surging run from Rothwell created an opening for Jefte, but his shot spun wide for a corner. And when the ball broke to him again, the Brazilian sliced it high and wide.

Martin made another double change at this point. Aarons and Rothwell were withdrawn, with Tavernier and Danilo taking over. Effectively, Rangers now had Danilo and Dessers as an attacking pair, with Raskin dropping deep to help out Souttar when required.

Tavernier fizzed a shot wide after 73 minutes. McCracken still hadn’t been stretched. Time was rapidly running out.

Cramp was starting to set in for a couple of the Dundee players. The treatment would buy Rangers some time and Martin went for broke when he made his final change, sending on Findlay Curtis for Jefte.

With 10 minutes to go, Antman, who had moved to the left wing, cut inside but his shot didn’t trouble McCracken.

But in the final minute, a lifeline. Gassama drew a foul inside the box and Robertson awarded a penalty. VAR agreed, Tavernier took it and sent the keeper the wrong way. Could victory be snatched from the jaws of defeat?

Gassama threatened to eke out a winner, but his tame effort was saved by McCracken. Dessers then strayed offside and had what looked like a winning goal ruled out by VAR.

The fans weren’t convinced by the appointment of Russell Martin. That meant it was imperative he hit the ground running. Two points from two league games can’t be patched up by three matches unbeaten in Europe. It is unacceptable and the tolerance level is wafer thin. The reality now is that if Celtic win their matches and our fixture against St Mirren is postponed, our Old Firm rivals could go 10 points clear with a victory at Ibrox on 31 August. It doesn’t matter if it’s the players and their fragile mentality and loser mindset that continue to let Martin down, you would have thought that no Rangers manager would survive that scenario.