Boyd's Still Our Main Man

[Rangers Football Club 0]

KENNY backs Kris despite striker to end goal drought soon

 

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KRIS BOYD is on his longest run without a league goal for Rangers - but Kenny Miller insists the ex-Kilmarnock hitman is the last man to blame for his drought.

 

The recently-recalled Scotland striker has played 487 minutes in the SPL since he last found the net in the title race with a Valentine's Day penalty against Hibernian.

 

What makes Boyd's two-month barren spell all the more frustrating is that just one more top-flight counter will take him on to 100 in the championship for the Light Blues.

 

In doing so, he would become only the sixth man to do that since World War Two and the 17th overall.

 

Much has been made of the fact Boyd has gone 10 games for his club and country without scoring from open play.

 

But that's a somewhat false statistic when you consider he played the full 90 minutes in just four of those fixtures.

 

It's when you look at the minutes he has played that the true facts emerge and it's the time he has gone without hitting the mark in the league that will annoy Boyd most.

 

Yet while he has appeared more and more agitated with each passing game, Miller is adamant he shouldn't blame himself.

 

Boyd's malaise has come in tandem with a general dip in performance levels at Gers and over the last month or so, they've not had the same momentum they carried before.

 

Whether that's down to fatigue - be it mental, physical or both - or something else entirely has been a hot topic of conversation amongst fans.

 

According to Miller, who faces Dundee United tonight, it's no coincidence Boyd's stunning mid-season form has come to an end at the same time as those around him have faltered to an extent.

 

Granted, the hernia operation required by the 26-year-old in January has undoubtedly been a contributing factor in his slump too.

 

But Miller is adamant if his team-mates are reaching their own potential and setting up chances, there's no way Boyd should be expected to continue scoring as frequently.

 

He said: "I've got a fair bit of sympathy for Kris just now. He came back from his injury and got off to a flyer in terms of scoring against Motherwell, Hibs and St Mirren.

 

"But he never got back to quite the same level as he had been at before his operation and that hasn't helped him much.

 

"To be fair, I think his own form goes hand in hand with the fact the team hasn't been playing terribly well either.

 

"Over the last month or so, we've not been at our best and we know that so it's a bit unfair to highlight Kris' situation.

 

"With no disrespect to Hamilton last weekend, they're a team we've played in the past and created lots of chances against.

 

"Yet when we played them just there, they performed in a way that made life difficult for us and we didn't have too many opportunities.

 

"They definitely had the lion's share of the possession and on previous occasions, you'd have thought we would do far better and Kris would have got a goal or two.

 

"One deflected effort in the first half aside, I'm struggling to think of another effort he had on goal.

 

Boyd and Miller celebrate"That's not his fault. If we aren't making as many opportunities as we perhaps were five or six games ago, Kris isn't going to score nearly as often.

 

"Regardless of the fact he's only got two penalty goals in his last 10 games, he still has 24 for the season and that's what we should be focusing on.

 

"That's still a great return and with six games left to play, who is to say he won't push on towards the 30 mark?

 

"If we can get ourselves sorted out and make more openings for Kris, I've no reason to believe he won't finish things off the way we know he can."

Edited April 14, 2010 by Frankie