Dunfermline goalkeeper Paul Gallacher has admitted that the Pars’ early-season purple patch is beginning to feel like a distant memory.
Back-to-back August away wins gave the East End Park club the perfect start to their return season in the SPL.
However, a run of four league games with just one point accrued has brought Jim McIntyre’s men back down to earth.
Their position in the league table isn’t giving any cause for concern in itself but, according to Gallacher, Saturday’s capitulation against Rangers is. So, too, is the fact they’ve conceded 13 goals in their last four matches.
The former Scotland man said: ”We’ve had some bad results in recent weeks and we’ll need to reflect, then look forward to a massive game at Aberdeen on Friday night. It’s one we’ll be looking to pick up points in.
”Losing all these goals in our last few games is a lot for us to think about. We’ll need to analyse it and rectify it.
”We’re all in it together. We’re making mistakes not just in this match but in our last few and getting punished for them. It’s never nice to be on the end of a drubbing like that.
”We had a lesson to learn after our first game back in the SPL against St Mirren and we did that. Now we need to stop conceding sloppy goals and make teams work hard for them.
”You have to say that Rangers cruised to that win and scored some easy goals. That’s thoroughly disappointing.”
The Scottish champions enjoyed utter dominance virtually from the first whistle to the last. Unsurprisingly the starting line-up was the one that saw off Celtic the previous weekend, rather than the one which suffered League Cup humiliation at the hands of Falkirk’s teenagers.
It took them just eight minutes to take control, when Carlos Bocanegra rose unchallenged to head home a Steven Davis corner.
The Pars stood off Maurice Edu on 17 minutes and he took full advantage by curling a left footer into the net from outside the box.
It was effectively game over there and then such was Rangers’ grip on possession, and the only real sight of goal that Dunfermline had in the first half was a Paul Burns 20-yarder which Allan McGregor saved low to his left.
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The home team came back from two down the week before against Hibs, but any hope that there could be a repeat performance was gone when Steven Naismith steered the ball home six minutes after the break after being put through by Davis.
If anything the second half was more one-sided than the first and long-range shots from Steven Whittaker and Nikica Jelavic peppered Gallacher’s goal.
Dunfermline’s one clear-cut chance fell to David Graham on 66 minutes but he couldn’t direct his 10-yard left-foot shot outwith the reach of McGregor.
The scoring was completed when Davis broke out of his own half all the way to Dunfermline’s box, laid it into the path of Jelavic, and he unselfishly teed up Naismith for a six-yard side-foot at the back post for his second and Rangers’ fourth.
Gallacher described the performance from Irish midfield dynamo Davis as a ”masterclass”.
He noted: ”Davis controlled it from start to finish in midfield. We couldn’t get near him and had no answers. Any midfielder who wants to improve should look at his performance. We’re lucky to have a talent like that in the SPL. There’s a lot of good players in their team, but he stood out.
”We spoke before the game about keeping it tight and not losing an early goal. We’ve switched off at a corner and they’ve scored. After that we seemed to go into a shell for a bit and Rangers imposed themselves on the game. From then on in they dominated it.”
McIntyre summed up the display and result as ”abysmal”.
He added: ”I felt that there was a lack of options for our players when they were on the ball and a lack of bravery to take their players on when we had the chance.
”It’s not games like this that we’ll be judged on at the end of the season. It’s the matches against teams at our level.
”Having said that, I expect far more from my team. We just didn’t handle the occasion properly. I know we’re a better team than that.”
Twenty-year-old Ibrox winger Gregg Wylde acknowledged that the highs and lows of Rangers’ week have given him a new insight into being an Old Firm player.
He said: ”I’ve learned a lot in the last six days. I’ve gone from a win against Celtic to losing in midweek and then bouncing back with a good win. It’s been a good learning experience for a young player like myself.
”We’re delighted to get back to winning ways. Questions had been asked about us and we answered them.”