Alex McLeish Backs Rangers F.c. To Beat Hearts On Monday

Alex McLeish has urged rangers f.c. and Danny Rohl to keep believing they can still turn around their title bid, with Monday's trip to Hearts now carrying real weight. Rangers are third, four points behind the leaders, and have four games left after Sunday's home defeat to Motherwell.

McLeish and Rangers title bid

McLeish said the current squad can become legends if they salvage this season. He pointed to his own 2005 title winners, who were written off before they fought back to snatch the crown from Celtic, as proof that a late surge can still change the story.

“Going into that game at Eastern Road, we’d been written off.”

“And this Rangers team right now has been written off too. So they've got that challenge ahead of them, similar to what we had.”

He also said the 2005 group stayed tight and rallied together through the run-in, then sealed the championship on Helicopter Sunday. “What happened on Helicopter Sunday made legends of everyone involved,” he said.

Hearts and Tynecastle pressure

Rangers now face Derek McInnes' Hearts on Monday in a capital clash that comes with the league leaders sitting ahead of them. McLeish said the challenge is the same kind of test his team met in 2005: stay together, keep belief, and find the results that can close the gap.

He linked that view to a Rangers Old Firm win he watched in a pub in Lanzarote a couple of months ago. “To see that performance that day, I really felt that we had a hell of a good chance of winning the title if we could continue with that kind of impressive, fast play,” he said.

The former manager said the present squad must match that level again if it wants any chance of a late comeback. “But the players have to really believe that they can do it,” he said.