Wednesday 26 November 2014 17:41, UK
Kris Boyd is looking to help Rangers get their season back on track this weekend after admitting last Saturday's defeat at Hearts has left the club in a "difficult situation".
Rangers, who were reduced to 10 men after losing defender Stevie Smith to a red card midway through the first half, lost 2-0 at Tynecastle to slip nine points behind the runaway Championship leaders.
Second-half goals from Jason Holt and Jamie Walker secured all three points for Robbie Neilson's side and Boyd, who came on as a substute 10 minutes from time, admits he was lucky to remain on the pitch following a late challenge on home defender Brad McKay.
It would be quite easy for everyone to throw in the towel and let Hearts win the league but we can’t do that. We know we’ve got a massive job ahead of us in the next few months.
Speaking to Sky Sports News HQ, the Ibrox striker said: "We find ourselves in a difficult situation after the game on Saturday. We kept going right till the end but ultimately we lost the game and need to regroup now.
"It would be quite easy for everyone to throw in the towel and let Hearts win the league but we can’t do that. We know we’ve got a massive job ahead of us in the next few months.
"We came off the back of losing to Hibs and went nine or 10 matches unbeaten so hopefully we can do the same thing again. We need to keep the pressure on because we know that Hearts can’t go the whole season without losing points."
"Of the tackle: that was not like me. I was lucky to stay on the field... but it's happened and we move on."
And Boyd is looking to kickstart the campaign when his former side Kilmarnock visit Ibrox on Sunday for the Sky Live Scottish Cup fourth round clash.
Boyd, who began his career at Rugby Park in 2000, joined Rangers in 2006 where he scored 128 goals in 143 games before moving to Middlesbrough five years later.
Spells with Turkish side Eskisehirspor and Portland Timbers in the MLS followed before he returned to Kilmarnock last season where his 25 goals helped preserve their top-flight status.
A return to Ibrox at the start of this campaign has seen him score just five in 18 matches but the former Scotland striker insists he will be looking to add to that tally this weekend despite his fond memories with Allan Johnston's side.
"It’s going to be a difficult moment because I loved my time at Kilmarnock last year," he said. "They gave me a great opportunity to go back and play football and I enjoyed it scoring goals week in week out.
"It was fantastic but time has moved on and I am back with Rangers now and I’m looking to get myself back in the starting line-up after being left out at the weekend and hopefully I can do that and score a couple of goals and put Kilmarnock out of the cup.
"I can’t complain because I have been given plenty of opportunities in the last few weeks. I haven’t scored the amount of goals that I wanted to but it is a challenge now to get myself back in the starting line-up and hopefully that starts against Kilmarnock.
"That’s football. I look back to last season and everything went right for me whereas I look at this season and everything has probably gone wrong for me. It’s a difficult moment but there are people out there in a far more difficult situation than I am. It’s a challenge I’ve faced before and a challenge I’ll face again and one that I’m looking forward to."
And Boyd is convinced manager Ally McCoist is not feeling any pressure despite coming in for criticism from a section of the travelling support at Tynecastle last Saturday.
"I don’t think any stick is going to affect the manager," he said. "When you go back to when he started here as a player I think he’s been on record as saying it’s been a lot worse than that.
"We know as a squad and as a management staff when you lose a game at Rangers it is a crisis. That’s what you face week-in, week-out.
I’m looking to get myself back in the starting line-up after being left out at the weekend and hopefully I can do that and score a couple of goals and put Kilmarnock out of the cup.
"Knowing the manager the way I do, he is not going to shy away from any decisions, he is not going to shy away from being out there on the touchline and doing what he does.
"He'll be at the forefront of it. It will be a challenge for him now but it will be one he looks forward to.
"We'’ve got another challenge against Kilmarnock which we need to rise to. It is a difficult moment for us but it’s time for us to regroup. It’s time for everybody to stick together and we know if everybody sticks together we can get ourselves out of this."
Boyd is convinced Rangers have the players to hold their own in the top flight of Scottish football, but is looking for his side to produce the goods on a more regular basis.
"We’ve got players in the dressing room who are capable of competing in Scottish football at the top level but it’s up to us to get ourselves back there," he said.
"It’s one thing doing it against opposition in a cup but we need to do it week-in, week-out in our league and get back to the top of our league every week before we can play against your Kilmarnocks, your St Johnstones and your Invernesses every week.
"The big challenge for us right now is to get ourselves out of this league and it’s one we’re not going to shy away from. But that’s what we do at Rangers... we bounce back."
Watch Rangers take on Kilmarnock from Ibrox live on Sky Sports 2 from 12.30pm this Sunday
