LEON BALOGUN wants the team to take the second half performance from Tuesday night’s Champions League play-off tie with PSV Eindhoven into the weekend as Rangers prepare to return to league action.
Michael Beale’s side travel to Dingwall to take on Ross County as they look to claim their first points on the road this season.
Speaking to the media in this afternoon’s press conference ahead of the match the defender acknowledges the test that comes with travelling to the highlands but wants the Gers to take the positives from their midweek showing to claim victory.
He said: “We have to park that, and take each game as it comes, and again try to play to your best ability tomorrow. We take one game at a time, PSV especially in the second half I think you saw a massive improvement. There is definitely bits to take from that game that we have to use going forward.
“That is something if you look back at the games we have played if you look at that second half performance where you say that looks a lot more like the Rangers team that we want to be.
“Ross County is always a tough place to go, obviously quite far up. They always make it difficult for teams and therefore that's what we know, we are going to face a tough challenge there.
Their start to this season is a mixed bag probably but with a strong performance against Celtic, so we definitely have to be ready and up for a fight before we think about wanting to play and force our game onto them.”
The Nigerian international insists full focus is on the task at hand tomorrow with the fixture sandwiched in between their Champions League play-off second leg, with their midweek opponents having extra time to recover for the match with no game this weekend.
He continued: “It might be boring but you have to deal with it, if you want to achieve your dreams then you have to give it everything. It is not really a sacrifice but that us just an obstacle that you have to knock out of the way and deal with it.
“Make sure that you perform tomorrow that is why the focus is on tomorrow but then looking at PSV, once we have the weekend behind us full focus will be on PSV. It is quick turnaround as well, that is a good thing.
The 35-year-old made his first start of the season in last weekend’s Viaplay Cup win over Morton and acknowledged he has to bide his time in order to earn more minutes, as he hailed how strong a squad the Light Blues have this campaign.
He added: “To be fair to them [Goldson and Souttar] I think they have put in really strong performances, especially if you look for stability the defensive line is always one thing that you look at. Whoever is going to play I think we have a really good relationship back there to back each other up and make sure whoever is playing that you get the best out of them.
“We have got really good defenders in that backline, there is no point of looking at being sour or whatever because we have big targets this season. In order to achieve them you need a strong squad and that is what we have.”