Turbulent Times For Gers Test

Apr 20 2008 Gordon Waddell

RANGERS fans, please adopt the brace position - your season-long flight is rapidly losing altitude.

There's no doubt the Ibrox side is crashing. All that remains to be seen is how many pieces they break into when they hit the deck.

This is the price of success. In the current football climate they were never going to get this far with their team free of injuries or suspensions.

It just so happens they're all hitting at once - and it could be Gers' downfall.

Their three player of the year candidates, Davie Weir, Carlos Cuellar and Allan McGregor - the bedrock of the team - have played in 51 of their 56 games together.

Yet from now until the end of the season their defence could change in every match.

Weir's red the other night sees him miss today but also puts him a yellow away from another ban. Cuellar's red takes him to the same spot.

Add to that McGregor, Charlie Adam and Lee McCulloch's season-ending injuries, DaMarcus Beasley and Andy Webster's absences and Barry Ferguson and Kevin Thomson's bans for Thursday night against Fiorentina.

They say character is not made in a crisis, it's only exhibited. Walter Smith better hope his reserves have it in them already.