Analysis: Fitness is the key to Rangers' late goal success

Rangers manager Mark Warburton (SNS Group)

It is easy to work out why. In the money and numbers game that is modern football, it is the men who most obviously get fans to part with their season-ticket cash who are most sought after.

And Allan, who as the Scottish Championship’s Player of the Year for 2014-15 was the star turn of the Govan club’s main title rivals and a boyhood Rangers fan to boot, certainly qualified.

The fact Hibs rejected Rangers overtures and he subsequently signed for Celtic merely added extra drama to the tale.

Flannigan, Hibs’ Head of Sports Science and Fitness, was almost anonymous by comparison

The 42-year-old former Rangers, Partick Thistle, Queen of the South and Clydebank player was known as having a good reputation in his field.

In media terms, though, his switch to become Rangers new Head of Performance and Preparation was viewed as worthy of mention only in the context of the ongoing acrimony between the two clubs.

Five months on, it is a different story with statistics suggesting he might just be the most important signing Mark Warburton has made since his appointment at Ibrox.

For thanks to his input Rangers had scored a staggering 24 of their 99 goals in all competitions in the final 10 minutes of games this season.

That’s almost a quarter – 24.24% to be precise – and almost double the return of second-placed Hibs who have netted just eight of their 62 from the 80th minute on.

Far more, too, than the returns of Premiership pace-setting trio of Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts.

It is, according to Rangers manager Mark Warburton, no accident.

“First of all, it is testament to all our players,” he said. “It is their attitude, their belief we can get late goals, that is paying off.

“The match against St Mirren (won 1-0 through Harry Forrester’s 86th-minute score, his first for the club) is a good example.

“Although we weren’t at our best, the belief and the fitness were still there.

“That is credit to the staff: Craig and his team, as well as Davie Weir and Jim Stewart, because it is the work on the training pitch which is responsible for us being in the good shape we are in.”

Poster boy for the fitness-first regime is Barrie McKay, the little winger with a punchers’ chance of getting a Scotland call-up this week when the double squads for the games against Denmark and the Czech Republic are announced.

Said Warburton: “At the start of the season, Barrie wasn’t scoring as highly as he should have been in our aerobic tests.

“All credit to him, though, he’s worked really hard on everything from diet and nutrition, rest and recovery, the activation work. That’s the way it has to be.”

While the former City trader is quick to suggest others are simply reaping the dividends of their investments in terms of time and effort, analysis points to his assessment as being overly modest.

It is surely no coincidence his previous employers, Brentford, headed the UK statistics in the same category last season – with 20 goals in all competitions to help them finish fifth in the Championship in their first season since winning promotion from League One.

Championship

Nor, indeed that from the 19 games in which Rangers have scored in the last 10 minutes Warburton has introduced three substitutes on 17 occasions. In the other two he put on two substitutes.

In the simplest terms the benefit of these changes is not easily apparent, Forrester’s effort in coming off the bench to score was the exception rather than the rule.

There’s evidence of a joined-up strategy in the 53-year-old’s recruitment policy.

By far the biggest investment Rangers have made since his appointment last June has been Michael O’Halloran at a fee in excess of £400,000 from St Johnstone.

The former Scotland Under-21 man was snapped up in the January window after impressing against Rangers in their 3-1 League Cup loss to St Johnstone at Ibrox at the start of the season.

Then, he scored one and set up one, but just as importantly, made a real impression on Warburton for his physical attributes.

Premiership

“Michael is a technically-gifted athlete who is fit and strong. He is still learning how we play but made a good start and has the potential to do very well for us.”

Again, that potential was in evidence in last week’s win against St Mirren when his quick direct play gave opposition defenders trouble throughout the afternoon.

The big question is just how much of an edge the fitness regime can give Rangers not this season, but next, when they will have to prove their ability against the country’s best in the top tier.

Succeed in delivering a run of late goals then and Craig Flannigan might just hear his name sung to the rooftops.

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