JACK BUTLAND has told his Rangers teammates ‘pull four finger out.’
The Gers keeper was less than impressed after the Light Blues’ new era got off to a disappointing draw away at Motherwell.
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James Tavernier headed Rangers into an early lead at Fir Park in Russell Martin’s first league match in charge.
But for the third consecutive season, the Light Blues failed to win their opening Premiership game of the campaign.
Motherwell dominated the second half and got a deserved equaliser when Emmanuel Longelo fired home a late leveller.
Martin was irate after the game and tore into his players.
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Goalkeeper Jack Butland – who pulled off a superb last gasp stop to preserve a point – was also less than impressed.
In a blunt post-match assessment, the Gers No1 told some of his teammates to ‘pull your finger out.’
He also reacted to the fans furious reaction at the end, with the large visiting support loudly booing the players at the end.
Butland told Rangers TV: “I’m not going to insult the fans with words that we all know and don’t want to hear but I would just echo what’s been said inside, what I said.
“There’s a minimum requirement, the way the manager wants to play can work but it needs everyone’s buy-in.
“We didn’t do that today. I thought we weren’t at it enough and that’s the minimum requirement of any football team.
“If we want to be successful, and I believe we can be, it requires more than that today.
“It wasn’t good enough so like when anything is difficult you’ve got to stand up and get your chest out and you’ve got to get on with it.
“We need to start winning games and doing it in a convincing and deliberate fashion with real performances, real effort.
“It just didn’t feel like we were where we needed to be today and that’s just the reality of it, there’s no point sugar coating it, it wasn’t good enough.
“Some people pull their finger out.
“Us as a squad, we need to set that and push people but understand if there’s anybody that didn’t understand what this club’s about then the response at the end is everything you need to know about what’s expected of you.
“Sort of rambling on a little but but we don’t want to be here having these conversations, we’ve done them before.
“We need to be optimistic and we need to look forward but we’ve got to be better than we were today, if we do that, we’ll be fine.”
He continued: “You’ve got to learn quick because there’s no time to waste.
“In my time here, we haven’t got off to a good start. You’ve got to learn quick, it’s as simple as that.
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“You’ve got to be strong enough to deal with it and you’ve got to get on with it and that’s what we need to do.
“Cliche of go again on Tuesday, that’s the reality and we have to win the game on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to win and keep winning games in the league and making sure that we win them more than anybody else.
“But saying that’s got to be a lesson and all that stuff is irrelevant – it’s too late for lessons.
“We need to be at it all the time so if anyone didn’t know, now they do.
“Everyone has been made aware of exactly what’s required before this so it’s not a shock to people but we’ve got to be better than we were today and if we do that we’ll be fine.”
Rangers are back in European action on Tuesday night.
They take on Viktoria Plzen in the first leg of their Champions League third round qualifier.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
Before heading out to the pitch for that one, the Gers will already know what lies ahead in the next round.
The Champions League play-off draw will take place on Monday morning.
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