Gers aim to bounce back in Irish Cup

While league success is still an achievable target, today Rangers switch their attention to the Irish Cup and the manager knows only too well that it’s a do-or-die mission for his team against Dundela.

“We owe it to the supporters to get back on track and in games like this, it’s almost always down to the hunger.

“In head-to-heads such as this one against Dundela, the team which wants it most nearly always prevails – and we must show we have the greater desire to win it,” he said.

“Last weekend we had a pretty decent crowd of fans who travelled all the way to Castlederg, only to be disappointed by a result that was not reflective of the ability or performance of the respective teams and we need to compensate our supporters for that by returning to winning form.

“The result wasn’t as bad as the scoreline indicates. Football is a results-based business but anyone just looking at the result at Dergview will not have seen anything like the true picture of what happened up there.

“Firstly, maybe the pitch shouldn’t have been declared playable. You don’t need me to tell you that playing football on boggy ground is a great leveller, with people slipping and sliding all over the place.

“That said, Dergview did what they had to do and, ... they only had two chances and they scored both times.

He added: “I’m utterly confident in the squad we have that we can get the result we need against Dundela. I have already seen enough in (new signing) Ben Roy to know that he can be a jewel in our crown. He’s going to be a real asset to the team and can help us get through to the last 16 of the only knockout competition in which we are still involved.

“Cup matches are all about hunger. Dundela are a good side and we know it will take a big performance to come through this, but we are capable of producing that.

“I believe in my players and the fans have been backing us, so we need to do it for them more than anything else,” Haveron said.