Rangers head coach Russell Martin insists the pressure on his side has not dropped, despite the three-goal advantage they take into the second leg of their Champions League third qualifying round tie against Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday.
Djeidi Gassama’s double, either side of Cyriel Dessers’ penalty, earned Martin’s side a deserved 3-0 win over Plzen at Ibrox last week.
However, momentum was then halted by a disappointing result and performance on league duty against Dundee on Saturday, as James Tavernier’s late penalty was only enough for a 1-1 draw against Steven Pressley’s struggling side.
When asked if the healthy aggregate lead meant an easing of pressure on his players before the return leg, Martin gave an unequivocal response.
“No, in a word,” Martin said. “We play for a football club that you can’t ease off ever. We’re going to have a sold-out away end and it’s a big night for us.
“After being a bit disappointed on Saturday with a few things in the performance, hopefully we’ll see some stuff that we didn’t do well enough come out tomorrow night and do it better.
“It’s my job as a coach on the training pitch to not come off the players one bit at any point.
“Even when they get into flow and it starts looking really brilliant, which I’m convinced it will be at some point, it’s my job to make sure we stay on them all the time to keep growing. And tomorrow night is just a part of that. So there’s no easing, there’s no talking about that at all.”
