Dailly ready to plug the gaps

With Kenny Miller, Kirk Broadfoot, Lee McCulloch and Kyle Lafferty all out of action at the moment - as well as long-term casualty Kevin Thomson and suspended duo Barry Ferguson and Allan McGregor - the last thing Rangers needed was to lose any more players. But Wednesday night's 2-1 SPL victory at St Mirren came at a cost, with both DaMarcus Beasley and Sasa Papac limping out of the action. Beasley was taken to hospital with a rib injury and Sasa Papac received five stitches in an ankle gash, with boss Walter Smith ruling both out of Saturday's home clash with Motherwell. There was more bad news on the selection front when the Scottish Football Association confirmed that Madjid Bougherra's booking took him over the disciplinary points threshold. The defender will now serve a one-match ban, which will rule him out of Rangers' first fixture following the SPL split on the weekend of May 2. That could well be the final Old Firm derby of the season, with the SPL always keen to play that fixture as soon as possible after the split. Striker Kris Boyd is also one yellow card away from suspension. At 35 years old and in the final years of his playing career, Dailly knows his role at the club is slightly different from the others. And he is well aware now is the time when he could be asked to step forward and play a major role in plugging the gaping voids which have been left in the team at a time when they are desperately trying to keep their title hopes alive. "That's my role here - to fill in if required," he said. "I just keep myself fit for that sole purpose. It's a unique sort of role that I've got. "The manager has a squad and I'm almost an additional player who is there if needed. "Injuries and suspensions can happen at this time of year and it's handy to have someone with my experience to play." Dailly is confident there is enough quality left within the ranks to make up for the loss of key players. And, at a time when Rangers must feel as though everything is against them, he hopes the club will emerge even stronger as a result. He said: "It's not an ideal situation losing the number of players that we have at present. "But we have a good squad and it's up to anyone who is asked to come in now to step up and do a job. "Hopefully, it will galvanise us. Everyone who has come in so far has done a good job. "There are going to be other teams affected like that as well so it's not just us and hopefully we can just keep going." Rangers have churned out scrappy wins over Falkirk and St Mirren over the last few days but Dailly insists points must be the priority now, with Celtic still in the driving seat at the summit of the SPL. He said: "We didn't play well at the weekend against Falkirk but we took the points. "We had to show the battling side and we had to show that again against St Mirren. It's all about the points now." Rangers appeared to be cruising to victory against Saints when Boyd and Maurice Edu both netted to give the visitors a comfortable lead heading into half-time. But Gus MacPherson's men were far more dangerous in the second half and Andy Dorman's goal for the home side meant a tense finale to the game for Rangers. Dailly added: "I think you expect the game to change slightly when you are 2-0 up at half-time. "We played some great football and I don't think there was any way St Mirren were going to allow that to happen again so the game changed in the second half. "They were more direct with their play and we just had to battle really hard. They didn't have a great deal of chances but, at times, we could maybe have kept the ball a bit better in the second half. "But the two away wins we have had this week have been really pleasing because they were two tough games." Rangers 1/4, Draw 9/2, Motherwell 11/1  

Source: Team_Talk