Downbeat Derek McInnes admits calamity Killie were spooked by Rangers’ ghosting runs.
The Rugby Park boss held his hands up as he confessed his side’s sobering six-goal defeat was unacceptable. But he put the blame for a horrid night down to the bewildering movement of the Ibrox frontline. He said: “I just spoke to the boys there about Rangers. You can lose a game two or three nil here if they turn up and show their quality. Rangers’ movement from Hamze Igamane towards the ball, and Ianis Hagi coming off shape caused a wee bit of problem.
“At times it spooked us and with Joe Wright going off hurt, it didn’t really help, because we’re already a couple of defenders down. Once the second and the third goal goes in it was all about trying to stop the bleeding. It should matter to players that losing a game two or three-nil is different to losing five and six. But we felt sorry for ourselves. We failed to get the fundamentals of stopping your man, stop the cross, get tight in the box.
“And yes, Rangers were clinical. Rangers had their tails up. They started to enjoy the game. It shows what can happen if you don’t keep your determination and you don’t keep your concentration and keep your heads within you. So a horrible night for us, not acceptable to lose in that type of manner. We now need to try and get back to being the team we were. Six weeks ago, we beat Rangers but we’ve never been hosed like that this season. It has to be a reference for us now going forward that we try and go to Dundee United on Saturday.”
A painful night was made worse by the news Wright had to be taken to hospital after a nasty clash of heads with Nico Raskin. McInnes added: “We need to wait and see how Joe is obviously, it’d be good if we can get all clear on that one for the weekend.”
Meanwhile, Steven Naismith loved the call to free up Mohamed Diomande, and latterly Nico Raskin, as Rangers removed the handbrake at Ibrox. Speaking on Sportscene, he said: Yeah, it was just having one sitter in the middle of the pitch allowing another body to get forward. I think most of this season you’ve seen two sixes sitting in the middle of the pitch. And for teams that allows them to sit in their structure a bit more.
“Having Diomande slightly higher then gives you the freedom of your forward players to pick up pockets and then create chances. And as the game developed the rotations were fantastic. That’s what Rangers teams of the past have done and what breaks teams down.”