McLeish reassures fans

Rangers manager Alex McLeish has told the club’s supporters there is no reason to believe they have seen the last of Jean-Alain Boumsong.

The France international has been publicly courted by Newcastle manager Graeme Souness, who is desperate to add the highly-rated defender to his squad in the January transfer window.

Rangers have already rejected two offers for Boumsong but the most recent offer of £8m (€11.4m) offers a tempting profit for a club who acquired the centre-back on a free transfer from Auxerre in the summer.

That led to fears that today’s Bank of Scotland Premier League game against Motherwell could be his last in a Rangers jersey but the Ibrox faithful were denied an appearance as he strained a hamstring during the warm-up.

His place in the heart of defence alongside Marvin Andrews was taken by Zurab Khizanishvili and McLeish acknowledges the more cynical observers will be suspicious of his absence for the 4-1 win.

But McLeish insists there is no reason to believe that Boumsong has played his last game for the club.

He said: “At the moment it’s the status quo. Boumsong is still a Rangers player, we don’t want him to go and quite simply people will be speculating about him pulling out today but that’s how it is and we hope that he’s here for the foreseeable future.

“He came in during the warm-up and said his hamstring was a bit tight and the doctor had a look at him. We decided to withdraw him from the team-sheet and play Zurab.

“Why take the risk? He’s feeling his hamstring tight and we don’t know if it’s a pull yet or a tear. We suspect it’s just tightness and that has happened to us before and will happen again.”

Nacho Novo grabbed a double to bring his tally for the season to 17 and match Celtic striker John Hartson’s record as the top scorer in the SPL this season.

Strikes from Shota Arveladze and Steven Thompson ensured there was no hope for Motherwell, despite a Scott McDonald goal shortly after the restart.

McLeish is hopeful he has finally found a striker who can net more than 20 goals a season in Novo.

He added: “I’ll be able to tell you at the end of the season. We have been a team who have shared the goals out.

“Nacho is certainly a player who loves getting in front of those goals and scoring and we’ve certainly lacked players in the past few years who have that passion for putting the ball in the back of the net.

“I want him and the others to look for each other as well. That way I think they will score even more goals.

“He played really well and was very lively. The crowd love him because of his will to win and never-say-die attitude and chasing lost causes.

“He has done terrific for the club and I’m sure he will do even better in the future.”

One of the few lowlights of the day for Rangers was Gregory Vignal being cautioned for diving in his own half and then claiming he had been brought down in the box later in the game.

McLeish has already warned the on-loan Liverpool defender of diving in the past but he believes Vignal did not deserve the caution on this occasion.

He said: “I’ll look at it. I don’t believe it was a dive but I need to see it again.

“I’ve spoken to him before about it and referees are going to be looking out for him. Gregory needs to know that.

“I don’t think on this occasion it was a dive and what’s a shame about this automatic yellow card is that you can’t even appeal it, whether the ref’s right or wrong.

“I’ve seen them on the continent and referees don’t dish out yellow cards - they tell the players to get up and get on with it.”

Motherwell manager Terry Butcher was forced to head into the game without four first-team regulars.

Goalkeeper Gordon Marshall is out for the next couple of weeks with an elbow problem, while skipper Scott Leitch pulled out earlier today with a throat and chest infection. Phil O’Donnell and David Clarkson were ruled out through injury and suspension respectively.

Butcher admits only the heroics of stand-in goalkeeper Barry John Corr prevented a much heavier defeat.

He said: “When the spine of the team is missing it doesn’t help but Barry John Corr came in today and had a great game for us.

“If it wasn’t for him they could have doubled the score. He was terrific today.

“I can’t use the four men out as the reason why we lost the game today. We simply weren’t good enough.

“I felt like walking in after the first two goals. There might have been something better on the TV like the Great Escape or something.

“It would have been a great escape as well.”