BY IAIN COLLIN – @CCP_sport
Peter Houston does not expect to see any change in Mark Warburton’s football philosophy against his Falkirk side tomorrow, despite Rangers’ recent disappointments.
The Ibrox outfit have drawn two of their last three league outings, with last Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Morton taking most people by surprise.
However, Houston insists Martyn Waghorn’s late equaliser against Morton was down to the passing style of play fostered by Warburton.
And, although some may be questioning the Englishman’s strict adherence to that approach, Houston is not anticipating Rangers to stray from Warburton’s beliefs.
He said: “Mark’s got a philosophy on how he wants to play the game and even the top teams stick by their philosophy.
“I don’t think there’s enough reason for him to change his philosophy.
“They continue that they won’t go back to front in desperation scenarios, when they go a goal behind.
“If you notice from their equaliser on Saturday it’s still a passing movement and an overlap with Lee Wallace getting to the bye-line and cutting the ball back.
“Minutes later they had something similar and Jason Holt knocks one over the bar.
“It’s not a case of playing from the back into the big striker and working off the second balls.
“Teams through the years, and it’s the Scottish mentality in many ways, have thought when you’re down with five minutes to go ‘just get the ball into the box’.
“That’s been the national team, the Premiership, the Championship – just get the ball into the box and we’ll take the scraps and see if we can get a goal.”
Dipped
Despite the draw with Morton, and last month’s 1-1 draw with Livingston, Rangers still enjoy a three-point lead over Hibernian at the top of the Championship.
Having scored 46 goals in just 16 league matches, the Govan outfit also enjoy a huge advantage in goal difference over their Easter Road rivals for the title.
And Houston reckons tomorrow’s opponents would be right to stick hard and fast to their attacking style as his own team seeks an upset.
He added: “One of the things I credit Rangers with earlier in the season was they continued to try 1-2s on the edge of the box, with guys like Lee Wallace and Jason Holt.
“And if you’re not sharp enough or quick enough or you don’t react quickly enough they’ll do you. They scored a lot of goals like that.
“I don’t see any reason why, because they’ve maybe dipped over the last couple of weeks, they wouldn’t continue to do that, and I don’t see anything wrong with that, because their goals-for column tells them that.”
