Barry Ferguson details ruthless Rangers call he made as pundit spots moment that left him 'absolutely raging'

Rangers won 4-2 away at Kilmarnock on Wednesday night - with interim boss Barry Ferguson proving he won’t be scared to make big calls.

The Ibrox legend made an emotional return to the dugout this week to replace Philippe Clement until the end of this season, and his debut seemed to be going all wrong. Killie lead the Premiership clash 2-0 in the first half before Ferguson ruthlessly made his first big call.

Having kept with the same team that lost to St Mirren last time out, he hooked young defender Clinton Nsiala amid a difficult first 30 minutes. Rangers soon got the message that there was no room to hide and Vaclav Cerny halved the deficit.

Cyriel Dessers bagged a double and Nedim Bajrami sealed a much-needed victory. Pundit and former Rangers player Cammy Bell said on Sportsound commentary that it had to be defensive partner Robin Propper in the firing line after Joe Wright’s opener. He said: “It was weak defending from Rangers and Robin Propper. It's just not good enough. Barry Ferguson will be absolutely raging.”

Nsiala explainer

Ferguson said it was a call he felt he had to make when it came to replacing Nsiala for Ridvan Yilmaz, and moving James Tavernier into centre-back. He said: “I've got to make decisions. Clinton's a young player, he's got huge potential, but it could have been a number of players. But I've been brought here to do a job, I have to make some tough decisions at times. I'm not scared to make tough decisions, but it worked.

“But listen, Clinton...we're going to work with him, we're going to make him better, and he'll learn from it. So it's nothing against the young man, as I said. I think he's got a bright, bright future in front of him. I only had one day with them, one training session, an hour and a half in the grass. That was it. But I'm not using that as an excuse. Listen, the first 20, 25 minutes is nowhere near good enough. They understood that, but they found a way to get back in.”

Fire in belly

Overall, the ex-midfielder can see a dig and grit about the team after a comeback win. He added to the BBC: "It was a horrendous start. We looked a bit nervy all over the pitch, a bit timid, but that's natural given they've come in for a fair bit of criticism. Maybe we gave them too much information, because after going two goals down, we got a bit of grip in the game.

"Then, we were different class in the second half, with the type of Rangers performance I expect to see. There's a lot to work on and we'll work on it, but one thing they showed tonight was character. You've got to be resilient at Glasgow Rangers. There's demands and expectations to win every game and if you don't, you come in for criticism and you need to handle that criticism.

"I see a fire about them. This is a group of boys determined to put things right."