Lee McCulloch praises character of Rangers team hungry to retain title

THE negative assessment is that Rangers' success this season highlights the poverty of their opponents. The positive, that they deserve more than the grudging credit they have received from many quarters for overcoming some poverty of their own.

Lee McCulloch, for one, prefers the latter verdict. The midfielder is aware that he and his colleagues are not the most gifted ensemble in the history of the club, but he is understandably proud of the character they have shown in the face of continued financial adversity.

Should Rangers become champions, it will be the first time in a decade that they have won back-to-back titles. For their detractors that may speak volumes about the feeble challenge from Celtic and the rest of the SPL: for McCulloch it is also an implicit statement that they must be doing something right.

"It says we're not the worst Rangers team that has ever been," the 31-year-old said yesterday. "That's what some people have said or written, but far from it.

"Obviously Rangers have had some fantastic teams and some fantastic players in the past. I think it's because we've not got maybe a (Brian] Laudrup or a (Paul] Gascoigne – somebody like that to light the place up when they get the ball, somebody to go past three, four, five players – we haven't got that and I think that's where at times it can be frustrating for the players and for the fans.

"But we keep winning. We've got that winning mentality that all the great Rangers teams have had before.

"If we can win on Sunday, after that cup final as well, it'll be brilliant. It'll be great. As a club it will be great.

"Everybody knows the off-field problems the club has had, not being able to bring in a player. It's credit to all the boys and the staff if we were to win on Sunday."

The winning mentality mentioned by McCulloch was never more in evidence than in "that cup final" – the Co-operative Insurance final against St Mirren in which Rangers had Kevin Thomson and Danny Wilson sent off with the game goalless yet still won 1-0. "We went down to nine men and I've never known a game like it with everybody arguing with each other, fighting each other, then at the end of the game it's all brushed under the carpet. You've got to spur each other on to win games.

"That was a big turning point for us, I felt. It was a big confidence booster, because at the time we weren't playing well, or as well as we had been playing anyway."

The togetherness of the squad is exemplified by the fact they spend a lot of time in each other's company away from football, according to McCulloch. The same sociable spirit was also evident in the Rangers team of the Laudrup and Gascoigne days which won nine league titles in a row, but, asked if the squad of 2010 would in future hold regular reunions in the same way as the nine-in-a-row one still does, McCulloch gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"We're miles and miles away from comparing ourselves to those boys, but you've got to start somewhere," he said. "We just want to keep winning games and stay together."

They can do something to ensure they keep winning games, beginning at Hibs tomorrow, but whether they stay together will be determined by the bank, or by new owners of the club if Sir David Murray is bought out in the coming months.

"I don't know who's going to be here next season player-wise," McCulloch admitted.

"Obviously we want the manager to stay. If he doesn't stay, is it going to be Coisty and the backroom staff? Nobody knows.

"We've just got to keep our focus on playing football. As a player I'd like to find out, and I'm sure the gaffer would like to know and the fans would like to know, but there's nothing at all we can do about it.

"There are five or six players out of contract this season and I think every one hand on heart would like to stay.

"That's the feeling I get, so hopefully for the good of the club they can do that. But, obviously, something needs to get sorted."