Teeth marks all over my backside- Barry Ferguson’s painful confession from the Dens Park trenches

Two weeks ago Barry Ferguson was telling Daily Record readers how confident he was about going into the trenches alongside warriors like James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Cyriel Dessers, John Lundstram and Borna Barisic.

After too many years of misery and pain the former Alloa and Clyde boss could see the promised land, it looked happy and glorious with no sign of any unexpected sniper fire.

With A Proper Manager in charge at Ibrox it looked like the post-split Glasgow Derby could be the title clincher ahead of a full on invasion of George Square and some busy nights at Accident and Emergency Wards.

Ferguson took Record readers through his staunch routine as a player for games against Selik, waking up early on matchday, slipping into his favourite trackie, soaking up the Stadium hatred of the fans during the warm up before the victorious battle against the hoops.

Record readers love all that crap, unfortunately after picking up two points from three matches Ferguson had to indulge in a bit of backtracking to his army of readers:

No one enjoys having to admit when they’ve got it wrong. So what I’m about to write won’t be easy.

But a couple of weeks ago I didn’t just make a mistake in this column – I ignored all my instincts and threw caution to the wind when I predicted Rangers would go into the post split fixtures five points clear at the top of the table and on their way to the title.

In my own defence, I did add that football does have a habit of biting you on the bum if you start taking anything for granted. So now here I am, with teeth marks all over my backside, trying to work out what the hell has just happened over the course of the last fortnight. And the truth of the matter is it’s getting very difficult for me to try to defend the indefensible where my old club’s recent results and performances are concerned.

Let’s just say I was almost lost for words on Wednesday when I watched them lose another two precious points in Dundee and it left me feeling so down that I struggled to get a decent night’s sleep. But, after a lot of tossing and turning, I woke up yesterday morning and gave myself a shake because, for as long as it’s still possible for Rangers to win this league, then supporters like myself have a responsibility to back the team through difficult moments such as these.

That’s more like it Baz, the sort of spirit that Mister Clement requires on Sunday when he takes his side into the trenches at Hampden.