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Louise Thomas
Editor
John Souttar says Rangers cannot let recent progress be undone by Thursday night’s 4-1 Europa League drubbing by Lyon at Ibrox.
The Light Blues went into the game with four successive wins since losing to Celtic at the start of last month and with six clean sheets in seven.
However, it was a chastening evening for Philippe Clement’s side who did not help themselves with skipper James Tavernier and wide-man Vaclav Cerny missing two great chances before the French team’s sensational 19-year-old Belgian Malick Fofana curled in the opener after 10 minutes.
Gers midfielder Tom Lawrence levelled in the 14th minute to give the home side hope but two goals from captain Alexandre Lacazette before the break gave the visitors a comfortable lead.
Fofana tapped in a second in the 55th minute to seal the win and leave the Light Blues with three points from two European fixtures.
Struggling St Johnstone and their new head coach Simo Valakari visit Ibrox on Sunday night in the William Hill Premiership and Souttar wants to get back to form.
The Scotland defender spoke about “small margins at both ends of the park” as he assessed the game against Lyon and the upcoming match against the Perth side.
He said: “Last week we performed really well in the same competition away from home (beat Malmo 2-0).
“Last night was difficult, but we need to dust ourselves down and see where we can do better.
“It did not go the way we hoped it would but we need to stay positive. We have three points out of six. It’s not too bad.
“Last season we played against top teams and we played against a good team last week and we done well.
“Last night was an off night in parts, we did well in spells in the game and in other spells we were poor.
“It’s one night that we weren’t at our best. But we can’t let it affect us going forward.
“We need to bounce back and we need to do it on Sunday. The clean sheet run we were on was good and we need to get back to that at the weekend.
“We need draw a line under last night, learn from where we went wrong and get back to business on Sunday.
“Any club in the world is going to have bad nights and good nights and it is how you respond.
“I am positive we have a group in the dressing room that will respond. The boys will be desperate to bounce back.”
