Whatever it was that Jayden Meghoma believed he was signing up for when he agreed to join Rangers this season, it certainly cannot have been this.
In agreeing to spend a year away from parent club Brentford by moving to the south side of Glasgow, the 19-year-old would doubtless have been swayed by thoughts of playing in front of full houses, winning most weeks and challenging for titles.
Back in June, there seemed so much to commend about a reunion with Russell Martin, who he briefly worked with at Southampton.
Fast-forward three months and the England youth international could be forgiven if he privately wished the opportunity had never arisen in the first place.
After five league matches, Rangers are still to record a win. Humiliated 9-1 by Club Brugge in the Champions League play-off, Thursday’s home defeat to Genk in the Europa League added to the growing sense of gloom about the place.
With the club’s new American owners seemingly the only people still championing Martin’s cause, anger has started to give way to apathy, with the thousands of empty seats seen in the last two home matches telling their own story.
Meghoma picks over the bones of Rangers’ loss to Genk with Gassama and Raskin
The on-loan Brentford full-back has shown some encouraging signs amid the Ibrox torpor
The England youth international is staying positive and urging his team-mates to retain focus
The embattled manager has been nothing if not consistent in his view on one thing.
In the training sessions he and his coaches put on, the players look the part. It’s when they cross the white line on match day that they apparently go into their shells.
Meghoma concurs with this take on why the results to date have been so underwhelming. He also appreciates what must change if the storm clouds are ever to be blown away.
‘It’s a mentality thing, you know,’ he stated. ‘We’re working on it every single day and we’ve just got to focus on the next game and try and prepare as well as we can.
‘I think as players, when you’re playing under a system, you really need to take to it and focus. You have to try and do your best to play in that way.’
For those in attendance on Thursday, the latest set-back must have felt like a re-run of a dreary old movie.
Martin’s side don’t move the ball with enough purpose. When the forward players arrive in promising positions, the final pass is invariably beyond them. They are consistently ineffective on the ball.
Meghoma previously worked with Martin at Southampton and retains belief in the Ibrox boss
They are no more impressive when out of possession. Opposing teams routinely carve them open by passing their way through them at will.
Genk’s winner, scored by former Celtic striker Oh Hyeon-gyu, stemmed from a single ball from deep which took out the entire midfield and defence.
Not since 1978-79 have Rangers started a campaign so poorly. With just four wins from 14 matches in all competitions and having failed to win two games on the spin as October comes into view, it’s the very definition of a club in crisis.
Livingston would never be the venue of choice for a side that can’t do right for doing wrong right now. Better Rangers teams than this one have struggled on the plastic surface against a side that’s coached to the nth degree by the canny David Martindale.
If the visitors go about their business the way they have in the majority of games this season, they will inevitably fall further off the pace.
‘Every game has its different challenges and poses a different threat,’ said Meghoma. ‘We know we’re coming up against them and we’re ready for it.
‘It doesn’t faze us because we prepare for these types of things and we know what we’re going into on Sunday.
‘We’re always attempting to win the game and that’s what we have to do against Livingston. We need to just win a game of football.’
