When Kilmarnock won in this fixture in October, Dodds was present in a media role, saying on Sportsound that day his former side’s attitude was “miles off it”.
That threatened to be the case again on Wednesday. Heads were down or shaking, shoulders were slumped, and confidence was devoid.
Then, Vaclav Cerny struck to halve the deficit before the break. Just a matter of minutes after Nsiala was hooked.
What followed was “different class”, said Ferguson.
It was certainly a different Rangers.
Cyriel Dessers, who first hauled his side level and then shot them in front, revealed that Ferguson told them at half-time that “we’re still in this”.
“We came out and felt, ‘hey, we’re going to get them today’ after that goal after half-time,” the striker told Sky Sports.
An elated Ferguson couldn’t hide his emotions when the final whistle peeped after what turned out to be a fairly comfortable win.
Relieved, yes. But rational enough to realise Rangers are far from resurgent.
“You’ve got to be resilient at Glasgow Rangers,” Ferguson said. “There’s demands and expectations to win every game and if you don’t, you come in for criticism and you need to handle that criticism.
“There’s a lot to work on and we’ll work on it, but one thing they showed tonight was character.”
For a fair while, Rangers have lacked in that department. There are still many unanswered questions when it comes to Ferguson’s credentials, but he’s a fine example of showing character.
