{"id":668922,"date":"2026-01-02T12:14:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/668922\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T12:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:14:19","slug":"rangers-set-piece-guru-funded-players-night-out-as-scott-frys-obsession-earns-him-acclaim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/668922\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers set piece guru funded players night out as Scott Fry’s obsession earns him acclaim"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 47-year-old has only been at the club for six weeks but has already had a big influence.Rangers set piece coach Scott Fry<\/p>\n

The Lincoln City players dubbed him the new Austin MacPhee.<\/p>\n

And after negotiating a bonus with the club chairman – they enjoyed an all-expenses paid night out thanks to his set-piece mastery. It\u2019s fair to say, Scott Fry was a popular figure at Sincil Bank last season.<\/p>\n

And one of the players who worked under him, Ethan Erhahon, is convinced he\u2019ll have a similar impact at Rangers<\/a>. Fry was headhunted by Ibrox boss Danny Rohl<\/a> and the set-piece specialist is now a key part of his backroom team.<\/p>\n

The 47-year-old has only been at the club for six weeks but has already had a big influence. Rohl name-checked Fry after Tuesday night\u2019s 2-1 victory over St Mirren – when Rangers\u2019 two goals came from set-pieces.<\/p>\n

One of the scorers, Emmanuel Fernandez<\/a> – who has hit the net four times this term – credits Fry for helping him become a huge danger to opposition teams in the box. But Erhahon isn\u2019t surprised the Englishman\u2019s work on the training pitch is now beginning to reap rewards.<\/p>\n

Lincoln\u2019s record on set-pieces last year was the best in EUROPE as they scored 30 goals overall. That\u2019s what attracted Rohl to Fry, who Erhahon compares to Aston Villa, Portugal – and ex-Scotland coach – MacPhee, who is an expert in the field. In an exclusive interview with Record Sport<\/strong>, he revealed what makes Fry tick, why players buy into his methods – and how he earned them a bumper night out in Manchester.<\/p>\n

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl and set piece coach Scott Fry<\/p>\n

Former St Mirren midfielder Erhahon, who is now at Bolton Wanderers, said: \u201cScott is an interesting guy. He\u2019s obsessed with set-pieces. Absolutely obsessed. We all really liked him at Lincoln. We used to call him our very own Austin MacPhee, from Villa. Last year in our secret Santa, someone even bought him a set-piece book that Austin was involved in.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he\u2019d regularly come and tell us that he was up late watching YouTube and discovered a set-piece that he wanted to try with us. I loved stuff like that. Because as players, when you felt he was so invested in something, you wanted to invest in it too. Set-pieces aren\u2019t the most fun thing to work on are they?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo player likes standing out there in the freezing cold practicing corner routines. But although it was serious stuff with Scott, he made it enjoyable. To be a specialist in anything, you need to be obsessed with it to be successful. If you\u2019re not, you won\u2019t get results.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott actually got us a bonus for scoring last season. I can\u2019t remember the exact figure, but let\u2019s say it was \u00a3500 a goal. And if we conceded from a set-piece, we lost \u00a3500. By the end of the season, because of our record with Scott, we were plus 25 on set-pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board had to pay it and we used all of that money for a squad night out in Manchester. Small things like that make a huge difference because it gives the players\u2019 extra incentive to do well from set-pieces. Who doesn\u2019t want to make extra money? Scott fought for that for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EthanEthan Erhahon in action for Lincoln City(Image: Phil Oldham\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Fry\u2019s appointment, allied to Rohl\u2019s coaching and management, has coincided with Rangers hauling themselves back into the Premiership title race. In his first game, against Livingston at Ibrox, one of his corner routines worked a treat with Fernandez scoring from a header. But Erhahon insists it\u2019s his work on second phases of set-pieces – which Gers scored twice from on Tuesday night – which sets him apart.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cScott\u2019s big thing at attacking set-pieces is the second phase. He insisted that if the ball comes out, don\u2019t mess about with it on the edge of the box. He wants the ball delivered to the back post as soon as possible. I don\u2019t want to give away his secrets – but you see that with Rangers now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the ball comes out to Connor Barron<\/a>, for instance, on the edge, the big guys stay in the box at the back stick and that\u2019s where it goes. I\u2019m actually good friends with Manny Fernandez and I told him when he signed for Rangers he\u2019d be a big part of Scott\u2019s set-piece work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be his target guy because he\u2019s an absolute unit. Scott keeps it simple for the takers – he\u2019ll just say: \u2018Hit the front or back\u2019. His theory is if they hit an area, he\u2019ll have runners. For one game, he\u2019ll focus on one spot. That\u2019s what he did at Lincoln.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d say, for example, depending on the opposition, 90 percent of the corners in this game will go to the back post. And he\u2019d work on creating space in that area to make sure it\u2019s on. He looks at the opposition and whether they\u2019re marking man-for-man or zonal. But he doesn\u2019t make it too confusing for the takers. It\u2019s like two separate things. The taker\u2019s job is to get it into an area. Then he\u2019ll work with the other players on making sure bodies arrive there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers Head Coach Danny Rohl shakes hands with Rangers’ Set-Piece Coach Scott Fry<\/p>\n

Attacking set-pieces are only half of Fry\u2019s job, of course. And Erhahon knows he\u2019ll be raging at how Rangers conceded a goal to St Mirren striker Mikael Mandron on Tuesday night. He praised his innovative methods and the Scot is convinced he can help bring success to Ibrox this season.<\/p>\n

Erhahon said: \u201cEvery week we went out at Lincoln, we felt we\u2019d score from a set-piece. We had the takers, we had threats in the box – we weren\u2019t really missing that much. And we didn\u2019t concede many either. I remember when we played Stevenage, they had a guy called Carl Piergianni, who was massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut with Scott, we\u2019d put TWO men on him, which is unheard of. Who do you know has ever put two men on one guy? It was unseen before but his view was that Piergianni was the player we had to stop. Ultimately, I think Scott will be a big success at Rangers. They\u2019ll get better at set-pieces as the season goes on with him there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what he\u2019s like. He takes a lot of pride in it. He\u2019s the first to be disappointed if you lose a goal from a set-piece, even though he\u2019s not on the pitch. The players at Rangers will respond well to him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 47-year-old has only been at the club for six weeks but has already had a big influence.Rangers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[422,1635,76431,192586,94,34286,1946,1638,79,21841,203825,16,15,27436,1737],"class_list":{"0":"post-668922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-aston-villa-fc","9":"tag-connor-barron","10":"tag-danny-rohl","11":"tag-emmanuel-fernandez","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-ibrox-stadium","14":"tag-rangers-fc","15":"tag-scottish-premiership","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-st-mirren-fc","18":"tag-texas-band","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-west-lothian","22":"tag-youtube"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115825453816546408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}