 You should learn something from every experience - even the bad ones. Rangers midweek game was in the latter category for Rangers and James Tavernier has promised that he and his teammates would learn from their latest defeat at Tynecastle while denying they were too soft on their travels. Rangers failed to improve on their previous away game against Hearts as they crashed to a 4-1 loss on Wednesday. Right-back Tavernier paid the price for their earlier setback in Gorgie in November when he was dropped after Robbie Muirhead twice got beyond him to score at the back post. Rangers won six of their next eight game, including against Aberdeen and Hearts at Ibrox, but Tavernier was left flummoxed by their continuing inability to perform away from home against their nearest rivals. The Gers lost all four away games against Falkirk and Hibs in the Scottish Championship last season and have now lost in all four game at the homes of their fellow top-four Premiership teams - Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts.When asked why, Tavernier said: "I honestly don't know. We pulled off a good win at Motherwell, it was one of the best 45 minutes we have played all season. Then we go to Tynecastle and it's a total flip side. It doesn't help conceding two poor goals at the start of each half. I'm not sure what it is when it comes to away games but we need to put things right. I wouldn't go along the lines of being soft because when we play them at home we certainly put in great performances. We beat Hearts and Aberdeen at home and we beat Hibs and Falkirk when they came to our place. It's not a case of being soft because we are winning at our place, they are winning at their place. It's just something we need to correct when we go to these places, and have a real good mentality and a real desire to win the game." Tavernier echoed manager Mark Warburton's comments that the Hearts game swung on conceding early goals in each half. When asked whether Rangers needed to be more pragmatic when playing away from home, he said: "Possibly. We analyse teams but Wednesday night came down to losing two poor goals. That gives them a lot of encouragement, gives their fans a lot of encouragement. It's a different game if Emmo (Emerson Hyndman) puts that ball in the net before half-time. Half-time was best for Hearts the way we were starting to play and the early goal gives them a lot of encouragement and makes it uphill for us. We have done analysis and it's two almost schoolboy errors for the goals and then that sets you back. Last time we played at Hearts it was two individual errors from me. It comes down to certain mistakes from different people. All the lads will own up to it, we have good characters and we will always try to improve ourselves. There is nothing wrong with the team, we have a great group of lads and we will definitely learn from this." Rangers bounced back from their previous loss at Tynecastle by beating Aberdeen at Ibrox and Tavernier pledged to do the same against Ross County today. He went on: "The last time we lost at Hearts we went on a good eight-game run. This has just been a speed bump and we will definitely have to put things right against Ross County. We need to go on another good run to keep second place." Ross County manager Jim McIntyre has told his players to forget about the errors that have undermined their return from the winter break and make amends at Ibrox today. County lost to Kilmarnock and Motherwell since the league resumed with both teams scoring through some non-existent marking at corners. Other blunders have led to County losing five goals in the two games to drop out of the top six but McIntyre does not want to dwell on them as they seek to add to the two points they have taken against Rangers this season. McIntyre said: "Individual errors happen when you have a lack of concentration and that's something the boys know we have got to do better and make sure we do our jobs on that. Mistakes happen in every game and it's about how you learn from that and how you bounce back. Nothing changes in that score. You have just got to show a response, it's as simple as that. You've got to make sure, if you make a mistake, you forget about it get on with it and you try and make up for it. Mistakes are made every five minutes in football and it's about how you rectify that and get on with your game. That's part and parcel of the game." |
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