By Mark Pirie

Copyright dailyrecord

Frustrated Russell Martin insisted he was “proud” of Rangers performance against Genk as he batted away 10-man Rangers slumped to defeat in the Europa League opener after former Celtic man Oh Hyeon-gyu netted the only goal for the side sitting 14th in the Belgian Pro League. Mohamed Diomande saw red in the first half leaving the Glasgow giants with an uphill battle. It derails the chance of momentum building for the Light Blues’ following their Premier Sports Cup win over Hibs last weekend. And speaking to interviewer Danny James on TNT Sports, Martin said after the full-time whistle: “It’s difficult because we are down to 10 men for so long. “We controlled the game and then we had a tough spell where we had to defend a little bit. We were not good enough or clean enough with the ball. I think we rode that out then Dio (Diomande) gets sent off and it changes the game. “The lads I thought were good second half, they were a threat on the break, good on the ball, they stuck together, and wanted to be aggressive with it – then they score a goal which we shouldn’t concede, really. “It’s in the corner, we should probably foul, and a couple of bad decisions later it’s a goal. I’m proud of that in the second half, against a decent team it’s not easy, it is what it is.” James followed up: “Can you be proud of a result like that….” But irked Martin cut in: “We are not talking about the result. It’s about the performance.” The TNT Sports man went on: “Even eleven against eleven, it seemed like Genk had a lot of chances and could get in quite easily.” Martin clapped back again: “Yeah, I just said to you. We had good control for 25-30 minutes, and then we had a wobbly spell for 10 minutes where we weren’t clean enough with the ball, so we had to defend a bit more. And we were in there box as well.” Quizzed on why that happened, Martin again fired back: “I just said you weren’t clean enough with the ball.” Pushed on why it was happening to his players, he said: “I think we trap ourselves. We don’t play with the intensity to find the other side of the pitch, and it hurt us a little bit.” Chants of ‘Martin, get to f***’ ringing out from the home stands at full-time as pressure ramped up again – with owner Andrew Cavenagh in attendance for the second consecutive game after jetting in from the US last week. Martin insisted he could still win over the support, stating: “I have said so many times before, the only thing that will impact that is winning football matches. “I think, inside the building they have been amazing, the process has been great – the players, the staff – we have to keep focussing on that and then the outcome will be positive and hopefully that will end up turning the supporters.” Asked about what he expected Cavenagh’s reaction to be, Martin revealed: “I will find out in about 15 minutes. I look forward to seeing him and chatting to him.”