BBC pundit James McPake: James Tavernier clearly fuming in Rangers win v Dundee
James McPake has insisted that Rangers skipper James Tavernier was left visibly fuming during the 2-1 win against Dundee.
Reacting to a clip on Sportscene, the BBC pundit admitted that the defender was not best pleased with service from Connor Goldson in the first half at Dens Park.
Tavernier also missed a penalty in the opening 45 minutes, making it the half from hell and not one to remember.
Speaking on BBC Sportscene last night (20 March), McPake singled out the moment where the skipper was left raging.
“Look where Jordan Marsh is, he’s meeting James Tavernier on the pitch there,” he said.
“Forcing him to go back when we’re used to seeing him pick the ball up high on the pitch, and just whipping those crosses in – you can see they’ve worked on that.
“You can see he was annoyed there, Tavernier, he was not happy that, one, Goldson gave him the ball there. He is that good going forward, playing against Rangers, you have to do it that way.”
Standards.
This is why Tavernier is the perfect captain.
No matter what is happening, he will never let standards drop below what is expected to play for a club such as Rangers.
Having been here since basically day one of the rebuild none of this will mean much more to anyone but him, and you can’t take success for granted.
Dundee are scrapping for every last point they can get in the Scottish Premiership as they bid to survive, so you have to expect that they will be in your face, just as they were.
The way we started the game proves that many didn’t deal with that, and that cannot be the case in these games where every point is so vital at both ends of the table.
Whatever Tavernier, the squad and Giovanni van Bronkhorst said at half-time, though, it worked and the three points were earned in the end.
We have to play like that second half for the full 90 minutes of games from now, especially next up after the break, with a huge title-deciding clash with Celtic coming.
In other Rangers news, Michael Stewart has shared his reaction to a ‘huge’ development at Ibrox in the past month