John Loving New Role
Clyde midfielder John Rankin spoke to the official website this week, to discuss last Saturday’s action-packed game and how he is finding his first venture into the part-time game, after a football journey which has taken him from Old Trafford to Broadwood via spells at Ross County, Inverness, Hibs, Dundee United, Falkirk and Queen of the South.
The former Manchester United youngster first reflected on the 3-3 draw with Berwick Rangers which saw him and his team mates come from 3-0 down to salvage a point, yet still feel aggrieved at not taking all three.
John, who netted the equalising goal, said: “Saturday was a strange, strange game. If you look at the chances we created then on any other day we’d have taken a lot more than what we did. It was a frustrating afternoon for us, if I’m being honest, not to have come away with all three points despite the position we were in at half-time.
“It’s probably two points dropped rather than a point gained but credit to the boys for showing some great spirit to get back into it. To go in at half-time three down, there’s probably no way that should have happened but the way we responded in the second half was great. We had plenty of chances in the first half as well but the disappointing thing was going behind and finding ourselves in the position we were in – we maybe didn’t do enough to be in front but we certainly shouldn’t have found ourselves 3-0 down at the break.
“Believe it or not, at half-time we didn’t think the game was over and we still thought we had a good chance of winning. That just shows the spirit that we have got. We were also down against Berwick earlier in the season – we were two goals behind and managed to get three points – but the feeling in the dressing room is we need to stop giving ourselves such a mountain to climb in the first place. It’s great that we can do that, but we need to stop finding ourselves behind early on.”
The 35-year-old has scored two in the last four Bully Wee outings but, while he was happy to get on the scoresheet, he was keen to praise the role of his fellow players in the build up to Saturday’s equaliser:-
“To be honest, I was a bit annoyed not to score more than one on Saturday. The boys did great for the goal though – the build-up play was brilliant and I was just lucky enough to be the one who put the finishing touch on it.”
This season has been Rankin’s first venture into part-time football and it is an experience he is relishing. He continued:-
“To have played full-time for 20 years and still be able to play on a Saturday… I am loving it! It has been different as I’ve never been part-time before, but I’m also getting into the coaching side of things now too.
“I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m probably just enjoying the last few years of my career now, while I can and I’m fortunate in that I am 35 and I can still run and I’ve still got a decent level of fitness – there are some people at this age who don’t!
“I don’t know if I will eventually go into management or not, but the experience of having been involved with a part-time team might stand me in good stead because, as I said, I don’t know what my future in coaching could hold.”
Whether he goes into management or not, one thing Rankin has been able to continue at Broadwood is sharing his experience in order to aid his team mates. John explained that this comes naturally, as he has been passing on his experience throughout his career:-
“I probably organised and shared my experience for years anyway. I played with Goodie at Dundee United and he’ll tell you I was never one to shy away from telling people what to do, where to be or to point them in the right direction. I have always done that on the pitch.
“The boys are great to be honest. They listen to the advice they are given, take it on board and try to carry it out. It might just be a case of saying ‘why don’t you drop 10 yards’ or ‘let’s get higher up the pitch now.’ I think they do take it on board because they know I have got a wee bit of experience myself.”
Looking forward, ‘Ranks’ is keen to focus on putting a strong full 90 minutes together but he is not allowing himself to look further ahead than this weekend’s clash with Cowdenbeath:-
“I hear people talking about the ‘next few weeks’ quite a bit but we need to forget that. It is all about the next game. For me we need to take each game as it comes – if we can start on Saturday by putting together a good first 45 then we can build on that in the second half.
“We need to start putting full, good performances together and if we can do that then game by game we can see where it takes us in the league. We definitely need to start by putting two really good halves together.”