This week has been the hardest Graeme Murty has experienced in football, outside of being relegated from the Premier Division with Reading, but his worst moment was having underwear waved at him and then thrown at him by irate supporters.

Pants Day happened at the Madejski Stadium on December 18, 1999 when the Royals, who had been struggling in League Two, were due to face Wrexham. An online campaign – the acronym came from Players Are Not Trying Sufficiently – gathered momentum and thousands of fans turned up with pockets full of underpants.

It was humiliating although Reading managed a 2-2 draw that day and appeased their fans to a certain degree.

Murty, however, should anticipate something a little more hostile if Rangers do not react positively to their pitiful performance in last week’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic that has ensured the former Reading captain will not be given the Ibrox job on a permanent basis.

He needs a massive performance from his team against Hearts today or there will likely be more than pants flying through the air in Govan.

“This has been my worst week in football. Getting relegated from the Premier League with Reading was bad. The day after we get relegated I had to go on a radio show and do a phone-in with fans.

“I’ve had days at Reading where they had ‘pants day’. All the fans came with loads of pants and threw them on to the pitch because we were pants.

“But this has possibly been the hardest week ever I’ve had in football.There have been bigger managers than me, more experienced managers than me, who’ve gone through similar situations and come out the other side. So you’d have to look at those guys and their examples for the learning that they’ve got and the improvement they’ve made from these circumstances. It’s hard, it’s difficult, I won’t shy away from that fact.

“But, you know what, I’m here I’m still going to do the very, very best that I can, and I still believe the team have got enough to get where we want.

“I think you would have to be very thick skinned not to take everything in. But then you have to be wise enough to take the pertinent stuff out, and learn from it, and put it into your daily practices. And make yourself better.

“That’s my challenge, that’s what I will do wherever I choose to continue or what I do. I will be a better person for it, although it’s really raw now. Although I’m feeling possibly a bit exposed at the moment, I’m assured by people that I listen to that it will stand me in good stead and make me a stronger person.”

Murty might be eloquent, thoughtful, knowledgeable and engaging, but is he tough enough for such a job? He

deliberately did not criticise his players last week when others might have.

“I am a good guy, I think I’m an affable person, a respectful person. I think I’m very open – too open at times. But you don’t get to play in the Premier League and international football without a deep core of resilience and a burning desire to win – and I’ve got that.

“I didn’t want to come out and throw anyone under the bus or blame anyone individually because I think it’s about the collective and doing the right thing to move forward together.

“This week we talked about the need to step up, play with intensity, aggression and desire and to represent themselves in the proper manner.

“I need to make sure the players understand that although they’re going to make mistakes and I’m going to make mistakes, the idea is we all pull together.”

Murty insists he never thought about quitting as it would have been the weak thing to do, but the players certainly owe to him to give him a performance to remain in control of second place.

“I sat here when things were going really well and I got lots of plaudits and pats on the back and it was great. I’ve seen the other side of it now,” he added.

“I’ve said to others, ‘What do you want me to do – go and hide under a rock? You come through the other side and make sure we’re ready for Sunday. And it takes a bit of strength. It takes a bit of grit. It takes something within you to actually want to go and win, for your own sake, for the team’s sake, for the club’s sake – and I hope that’s what the fans get to see on Sunday.

“I will get to the end of this experience, whenever it ends, take stock and decide the next step I’ll make.

“It will be a time of reflection and not an emotional or knee-jerk reaction. A time where we sit down as family and decide, ‘you know what, I can do this, I’m bloody good at this, this is the way I am going to go, and when I decide that I will give it everything I’ve got.”