NOBODY is exempt from criticism when you lose an Old Firm game and that has been the case at Ibrox over the last fortnight.

When you are beaten by Celtic in the manner that Rangers were on Saturday, the board, the manager and the players were always going to find themselves in the firing line.

Pedro Caixinha has taken his share of the stick over the last couple of weeks and he now knows what it is all about in Glasgow.

He has said in the past he understands what needs done at Rangers and the demands from the supporters but it is a different situation when you find yourself at the centre of it. Like most fans, I will give him a break right now, though.

There will be things he will look at in both games and maybe things he wishes he had done differently. But, like I have said before, you can do all the preparation you want and do as much tactical work as you want, if the players don’t perform then you won’t win the game.

At Ibrox, like at Hampden, Rangers didn’t perform and they got the results that they deserved.

Pedro tried to be positive on Saturday but it quickly went from bad to worse and Celtic ran away with the game. When he got home that night, he would have had plenty to think about.

He is still continuing his assessment of the squad and he will have a better idea now of the ones he wants to keep and the ones he wants to get rid of. It won’t be an easy summer for him, but he certainly knows the scale of the job ahead of him now.

You can only work with the tools that you have got and now we find ourselves looking over our shoulders at St Johnstone to make sure we finish third. They are six points behind and we have still to play them at Perth so there has to be a reaction against Partick Thistle this weekend.

Second was the minimum expectation for Rangers this season so they can’t afford to end up fourth. These players have let themselves down time and time and time again and the manager will probably have made up his mind on 90 per cent of the squad.

When he was questioned after the final whistle, he didn’t look for excuses. He said ‘I am here, I’m the manager, I take responsibility’. He is not shirking anything.

He is just in the door and this is not his squad but he knows the last two games haven’t been good enough. I think he should get a bit of slack and if anyone is getting stick then the players deserve it more than Pedro does.

It was the worst we have played this season and there are no excuses for that performance. At Ibrox, in front of our own fans, we got absolutely battered.

That showed how big the gap is between Rangers and Celtic and what needs to be done going forward. As a few people have said, it was 5-1 but it could have been a lot more.

You can’t say that we will buy players in the summer and definitely challenge Celtic next year. It is going to take time and the squad needs a lot of work.

Never mind thinking about stopping ten-in-a-row, the first aim is to stop seven. If you don’t you have to stop eight. The fans need a bit of hope for next season and the only man that can give them that is Dave King.

This isn’t a great time for Rangers but the one good thing is the supporters and the fact that they continue to back the club. There isn’t any talk about ‘I’m not going back’.

We all appreciate right now that the team is at a low ebb but fans not turning up and tickets not being sold isn’t going to make things any better.

You need everyone sticking together, like we did in the Third Division when there were tens of thousands at Ibrox and people coming from all over the world to see Rangers. The fans have to stand by the club.

There has to be significant changes in the summer and I think there will be. The board are all Rangers fans so they will know how the supporters are feeling and that there is a lot of work to be done.

Dave doesn’t come over for many games but he will know this is a really important summer for Rangers. The fans want a bit of hope for next season.

Dave has done a lot of talking over the last couple of years and now the supporters want to hear from him.

He doesn’t own Rangers but people see him as a figurehead and he has a big say at Ibrox. Now, the fans want to know what is going on.

I know he is going to the NARSA Conference but I think he should come to Glasgow and speak to the fans here.

He has said that Pedro will get money and, while we don’t expect him to tell the public exactly how much, the supporters want to know what is happening at their club.

They deserve it because they have stood by Rangers year on year. Everyone has to be going in the same direction if next season is going to be a better one.