Russell Martin accused his Rangers players of having the wrong mentality after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Motherwell, with Emmanuel Longelo scoring an 87th-minute equaliser. The former Southampton manager, appointed in June, said his side were 'lucky to get a point' and criticised their attitude.
'I think we were lucky to get a point,' Martin told Sky Sports. 'Motherwell played great, we were nowhere near where we need to be, I'm extremely disappointed and hurt by that.' He added: 'There is a default here at this football club, to revert to type. When it's going really well, everyone's all in; when it's not going well, you protect yourself a little bit, self-preservation.'
Martin singled out individual failings: 'We had too many on the pitch today who just did what they wanted to do. When you want to just jog around, there's a big problem. Some of them have to drop their ego. Today wasn't really tactical, it was a mentality problem.'
Rangers had taken the lead through James Tavernier's header in the first half, but Motherwell grew in confidence and deservedly equalised late on. Martin continued his criticism in the post-match press conference: 'The problems haven't been tactical, yet. They've been mentality, about energy, about courage, intensity, aggression, to play.'
'It's not me digging them out,' Martin added. 'I take full responsibility for it. But that hurts me more than anything. Too much ego, too much self-preservation, and you're either all-in all the time or you're not. And if you're not, you just won't play very much.'
