Fans of Scottish Premiership giants Rangers demanded that Graeme Murty leave Josh Windass on the bench for Tuesday’s clash with Partick Thistle.
If Josh Windass watches back his well-taken goal in Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Partick Thistle, the Rangers midfielder may regret his choice of celebration.
Shushing your own supporters never goes down particularly well, after all. And Rangers manager Graeme Murty was clearly as unimpressed as the Ibrox faithful, demanding an explanation from the 24-year-old after the Glasgow derby win.
“To be perfectly honest I don’t know why Josh does many of the things he does,” Murty said in quotes reported by the Daily Record.
Unfortunately, that ill-judged gesture has rather overshadowed a fine display from a player who remains something of a Marmite figure among Rangers supporters.
Many fans had demanded before the game that Murty left Windass on the bench after an ineffective performance in Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat to Hibernian, but the former Accrington Stanley star produced the perfect response in midweek.
An emphatically taken first-time finish from Daniel Candeias’s pinpoint cross set Rangers on their way to a 2-0 win; his tenth of a prolific season from central midfield. It is the sort of statistic that explains exactly why Murty has made Windass one of the first names on his team-sheet since taking over from Pedro Caixinha in late October.
And, just to complete an effective display, Windass then set up James Tavernier to hammer home the clincher in the second half.
On this evidence, it is difficult to argue that Murty should have left Windass glued to the bench rather than at the heart of his side.
A match-winning goal and assist combo means the midfielder has justified his continued inclusion, even if his rather foolish celebration has not exactly boosted his popularity in the eyes of supporters.
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