The Thistle Archive

Rangers made it two wins out of two under interim manager Graeme Murty by beating Partick Thistle and moving closer to second-placed Aberdeen. Ross McCrorie headed his first senior goal following Daniel Candeias' cross and Candeias then doubled the lead from close range. Josh Windass slotted home Rangers' third shortly after the break. With Rangers still searching for a new manager following Pedro Caxinha's sacking last month, they go into the international break fourth - a point behind a Hibernian side who have played a game more. However, Saturday's win takes them to within three points of the Dons, who drew at Hamilton Academical.

Rangers made the early running against Thistle with James Tavernier and Candeias prominent on the right-hand side. Ryan Jack had a shot saved by Tomas Cerny as the hosts' pressure built. The opener came when Kenny Miller took a corner short to Candeias and the winger's cross was nodded home by teenager McCrorie, who retained his place despite Bruno Alves' return from suspension. Candeias had netted against Thistle in Rangers' League Cup win at Firhill earlier this season and the Portuguese was on hand to convert a rebound shot after Cerny had denied Jason Holt.

Thistle would have hoped to stem the flow of attacks towards their goal in the second period but they fell further behind when Windass latched on to Jordan Turnbull's attempted headed passback and beat Cerny. Candeias and Windass then combined to set up Miller, who fired over. Partick boss Alan Archibald sent on Kris Doolan in place of Conor Sammon and the substitute striker fired into the side netting in a rare foray forward for the visitors. Ryan Edwards also threatened for the Jags but could not hit the target with his curling effort and Doolan also knocked wide after being found by Blair Spittal. Gary Fraser made his return from a 19-month injury absence as a replacement for Miles Storey and the Jags midfielder shot wide near the end.

Graeme Murty insists he will let results do the talking after his second straight win as Rangers interim boss:

I will never ever shout my own attributes or plaudits from the rooftops. I am a very big believer in doing a very good job and allowing the job to speak for itself. I really enjoyed this week in training. We played really well in the first half, the second half was frustrating. I just said to them that I will never criticise them for winning, never criticise them for scoring those goals, but we know that we can do better and they agreed with me. This is not the benchmark, this is not the standard they want to aspire to. They want to get better, which is very pleasing for a manager to hear.

Alan Archibald lamented the manner of the goals his Partick Thistle side lost:

We got into good areas but we didn't quite do enough with it when we got in the final third, which is disappointing, but it comes down to goals we lost today and we lost very poor goals. We gave Rangers two goals rather than make them work for it. It was disappointing to lose a goal from a set play. We were comfortable for the first 15 minutes without hurting Rangers. We're playing a shape just now that we're just trying to find a way, with our injuries, to get victories and this is a tough place to come regardless of what's going on in the background. At 1-0, you're still in the game then we gave them another goal with the second one and the time of the goals was sore today. The third goal's a terrible goal to give away. It's a slack back header that presented Rangers a one-on-one. Three-nil, the game's over. We've got nine big games before the winter break now and we need to make sure we take points in them. Hopefully, we'll get a couple of injuries back. We were down to the bare bones today in terms of we couldn't even fill the bench so that couple of weeks [over the international break] will be vital for us getting Chris Erskine back, hopefully Martin Woods and then maybe getting a couple of long-term ones back into December. We had eight missing today. It's hard for a club like ours with that kind of personnel missing but it's not a an excuse. The goals we give away today weren't anything to do with injuries.

bbc.com

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