Ibrox icon Barry Ferguson warns under-fire Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha his team must beat Hamilton 

  • Rangers travel to Hamilton in the Scottish Premiership on Friday night
  • Pedro Caixinha is under intense pressure after last weekend’s Old Firm defeat
  • Ibrox icon Barry Ferguson has described the match as a must win

Ibrox icon Barry Ferguson has warned Pedro Caixinha that Friday's match at Hamilton is a must-win.

The Portuguese coach is under intense pressure after last weekend’s Old Firm defeat and a subsequent stormy team meeting where he is alleged to have accused Scottish players within his dressing room of failing to make him, his staff and foreign recruits welcome since their arrival at Auchenhowie.

Caixinha also angrily lambasted Graham Dorrans during the same post-Old Firm debrief for passing the captain’s armband to veteran striker Kenny Miller when he replaced Carlos Pena in the second half.

Pedro Caixinha is under intense pressure after last weekend¿s Old Firm defeat

Pedro Caixinha is under intense pressure after last weekend’s Old Firm defeat

And Sportsmail understands Dorrans’ place in the starting line-up is under threat tonight while Caixinha is likely to stick with the majority of the side that flopped in the 2-0 defeat to Celtic, which would see Miller left on the bench again.


With the big-spending Ibrox side trailing in fifth place in the Premiership, Ferguson insisted there is no room for another slip-up.

‘How big is the Hamilton game for Pedro Caixinha? Simple, Rangers need to win the game,’ said the former Rangers and Scotland captain.

‘It’s all I can say after last week’s disappointing performance. I don’t think Rangers got anywhere near Celtic.

‘For me, Pedro Caixinha needs to get three points at New Douglas Park, which is a difficult place to go because Hamilton are decent on their home patch.

‘He needs to go there and get a win after what he has said. He’s had his (team) meeting, now let’s see if the players are up for getting the result.’

Ibrox icon Barry Ferguson has warned Caixinha that Friday's match at Hamilton is a must-win

Ibrox icon Barry Ferguson has warned Caixinha that Friday's match at Hamilton is a must-win

Ferguson accused Caixinha of making ‘a massive mistake’ by leaving his former Rangers and Scotland team-mate Miller out of the starting line-up against Celtic and added: ‘For me, you’ve got to play Kenny Miller. I don’t know if there is an issue there with Kenny and the manager but it seems to me there is.

‘Nine times out of 10 what comes out in the media is true. How it gets out, I don’t know. But they (the media) are very rarely wrong so there’s obviously a problem (in the Rangers dressing room).’

Yet defender Declan John believes Monday’s clear-the-air talks will have a positive effect and the on-loan Cardiff left-back insisted the squad are united in their desire to win for their embattled boss.

‘When you have a meeting about games, all the stuff we have done good or bad, we have to put that into every game now,’ John said.

‘The manager is going to show his feelings. The meetings we have had have been about the games.

‘It’s been fine. We have had a look at that and we will take the stuff we have had in the meetings, watching the game, into Friday.’

Rangers players walk off dejected following their defeat to Celtic on Saturday

Rangers players walk off dejected following their defeat to Celtic on Saturday

Regarding the suggestion that Caixinha had lambasted home-based players for not making newcomers feel welcome, John added: ‘I feel welcome. It is a good group of lads in there and they have made me feel really welcome. I am happy with the way it is going.

‘There are a lot of games to go and the games we have got, we can definitely get the three points in them. You go back to the signings. We have signed 11 new players so it does take time to gel.

‘You have got different players coming from different managers and they have played differently at previous clubs. It does take time to gel - but I think we should be fine. We are all together as a team, as a club, all the coaching staff is together.’

Asked outright if he felt the players owed their manager a performance in Hamilton, John declared: ‘Yeah, of course we do.

‘We have got that amount of fans coming to watch every game we play, whether it is away or home, so you just want to repay them, the manager and the club.’