Lee Hodson believes that victory for Rangers in tonight’s away fixture against Hamilton Academical may prove to be a pivotal moment in their league campaign.
The full back’s team-mates Barrie McKay and Kenny Miller have refused to concede the title to leaders Celtic. However, the latter are currently 11 points and 26 goals better off than their rivals in second place (with the luxury of having played two games fewer) so failure to prevail against the team in eighth place may bring such bold statements to an end.
Hearts and Aberdeen have both dropped points at New Douglas Park this season but Hodson is determined to leave with a win. “With the confidence the lads have, this could be a turning point,” he said. “We know what we want to do and that’s to go out there and play the Rangers way. That means getting at them from minute one, getting an early goal and kicking on from there.”
As their manager Mark Warburton highlighted earlier this week, Rangers’ record on the road leaves plenty of room for improvement and Hodson is convinced that beating Hamilton could have a galvanising effect.
“I know that performances dipped a bit along the way but we knew that it would all click eventually,” he said. “Once you get that momentum you become very hard to stop and, in our last two games, we’ve done really well. We’ve been dominating the play and we need to carry that on into Friday night. Then we can look at keeping it going in the next match, against Inverness at Ibrox, which we’ve managed to turn into a fortress. Now, when other teams come to our place, they find it hard to get anything at all.”
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Hodson is aware of the significance of trying to put Accies to the sword because, thus far, Rangers have been unable to record three successive victories this term but he remains focused on tonight’s task: “The main thing is to win, whoever is in the starting 11.”
Hodson has played in as many World Cup qualifying ties for Northern Ireland (three) as he has made league appearances this season but the 25-year-old enjoyed a rare start when James Tavernier was dropped following the 2-0 defeat by Hearts at Tynecastle last month, and celebrated with the decisive goal in the 2-1 win over Aberdeen.
Tavernier returned for last weekend’s victory over Hearts at Ibrox but Hodson retained his place, with the former moved into midfield. Hodson argues that they can be partners rather than rivals. “James is a very versatile player who can turn out on the right wing, midfield and full back, and not a lot of players can do that,” he said. “He showed his quality in midfield at the weekend against Hearts. He played very well, got on the ball and dictated the play and created chances too.
“That puts a message in the gaffer’s mind, showing him he can play in that position as well and now it’s down to the manager to decide where he wants Tav to play.”