The Russell Martin act that proves Rangers boss is already feeling the pressure as ragtag Dundee had their number

Daily Record

2 days ago

Record Sport's Scott McDermott was at Ibrox on Saturday to witness another stumble from Russell Martin's Light Blues
There was 97 minutes on the clock.
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Cyriel Dessers had just scored what appeared to be a last-gasp winner for Rangers to devastate Dundee.
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And a normally calm Russell Martin exploded with emotion on the Ibrox touchline.
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He was out of his technical area. Flailing arms, face contorted, hair blowing in the Govan wind.
He turned to supporters in the Bill Struth main stand - who had given him dog's abuse - and celebrated wildly.
Who could blame him? It was a mixture of joy, but mostly sheer relief.
But then VAR stepped in and killed his moment. Dessers was offside, the goal chalked off.
And Martin's act of exuberance meant nothing. Or maybe not.
Maybe, it was actually vitally important in the grand scheme of where Rangers are right now.
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The manager's antics felt out of character.
Which made you wonder if it was the clearest sign yet that Martin is already feeling the pressure of this job.
Even this early in his tenure, he HAS to be after Saturday's dire display against the Dark Blues.
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Let's be clear, Steven Pressley's side deserved more than their solitary point at Ibrox.
A rag-tag squad of guys who were at Accrington Stanley and Cambridge United last season, cobbled together by a gaffer ridiculed within his own support, had Rangers' number.
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Defensively, Dundee - who have been tipped for Premiership relegation - were outstanding.
On top of that, they arguably carved out better chances in the game.
Clark Robertson hit the post, while Ryan Astley should have won it late on having earlier given the visitors a lead.
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While several Dundee players led by example for their club - Rangers' reverted to type in the Scottish Premiership by performing a masterclass in passing the buck.
Even with 10 men, after Nasser Djiga's red card on the hour mark, it was desperate stuff.
Forget Europe and Tuesday night's exciting Champions League qualifying win over Viktoria Plzen.
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We already know these players don't have a problem raising their game on that stage, under the lights.
But when it comes to getting their hands dirty on domestic duty?
Far too many of them just aren't interested.
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It's difficult to know where to start with this Rangers performance - or indeed Martin's comments afterwards.
For the best part of four years now, fed-up punters have been watching their side crawl out of the starting blocks in games.
They were at it again here.
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Slow, laboured, lethargic, pedestrian. No urgency, tempo, desire, intensity.
The same words just re-hashed for yet another different gaffer.
The lack of hunger to bludgeon inferior teams into submission to win domestic games and actually go and challenge for a title - is unfathomable.
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That's the mentality and culture Martin knows he has to fix. At least he's identified it and is aware of it.
But that doesn't mean he'll be able to change it.
Because to do that, he needs certain characters, leaders and personalities in his dressing-room.
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And right now, it's questionable whether he's got that.
At full-time, Martin said he knew there would be pain along the way.
Pain at Rangers should be losing a league by a few points.
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Getting knocked out in the latter stages of a European competition.
Or being defeated on penalties in a cup final.
It shouldn't be failing miserably to beat Motherwell and Dundee in the Scottish Premiership.
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Most fans accept Martin's request for time, given the seismic changes at the club.
But he said when he got the job that he understood, while implementing a new style and overhauling the squad, that he had to WIN at the same time.
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And so far, two games into the campaign, he hasn't done it yet.
Rangers have forked out just over £20 million so far this summer.
Motherwell and Dundee - who both have new bosses themselves performing a revamp of their own - have barely spent a dime.
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Yet last week at Fir Park and on Saturday at Ibrox, they were more than a match for Rangers.
Martin says his team is still on a learning curve.
That they'll now have a better idea how to play against a team with a low-block, packed defence.
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That it requires quick passing and penetration. But if it took this Dundee draw to work that out, it begs the question - what exactly were they expecting?
If boys like James Tavernier, John Souttar and others don't know that by now, they really are in trouble.
This performance was a carbon copy of what these supporters have witnessed too often under previous gaffers, Gio van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale and Philippe Clement.
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And it's why Martin's side were booed off the pitch at the end.
It's why they jeered loudly - whether you agree or not - when Kieran Dowell was offered up as a saviour from the subs bench.
They watched their side fail to win their first two league games for the first time since 1989.
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In the eyes of the supporters, what was supposed to be a new dawn for the club under American ownership - already feels like yet another false one.
Which is quite remarkable given the feel-good factor that engulfed the stadium on Tuesday night after battering Plzen 3-0.
Here, they dominated the ball early on but played around Dundee with no purpose or precision.
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When Robertson left Butland rooted to the spot as his header cracked the post - it was a warning Rangers didn't heed.
All they could muster themselves in an abject 45 minutes was pot-shots from distance.
After the break, it got worse when Dundee broke the deadlock.
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They cleverly created space at the back post from Callum Jones' free-kick.
Robertson nodded it back into the danger area and Astley looped a header beyond a flat-footed Butland.
Suddenly, Rangers players decided to up the pace, like they ought to have done from the off.
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But when centre-back Djiga was sent off for upending Finn Robertson who was clear on goal, it began to feel calamitous for the hosts.
There can't be a club in Europe that turns a day which, on the face of it should be fairly routine, into chaos and carnage quite like Rangers.
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Martin rang the changes but, if anything, the performance became more ragged and disjointed.
In the 90th minute - when they were now in a 2-3-5 formation - lively Djeidi Gassama won them a spot kick when he was tripped by Drey Wright in the box.
Tavernier slotted home the penalty and gave the fans faint hope they might actually win it.
Then came Dessers' injury time strike that was ruled out by VAR, spoiling Martin's celebration and act of defiance.
If he was feeling the tension, at the thought of dropping four points in his first two league games, he ain't felt nothing yet.
Because if Rangers lose his first Old Firm meeting with Celtic in a few weeks - and slip however many behind Brendan Rodgers' side by the first week of September - he'll soon know what pressure really is.