Hibs hit out over cup final ticket allocation

Van Bronckhorst, pictured, was appointed as the new boss of the Ibrox club last week following the departure of Steven Gerrard to Aston Villa.

The Dutchman was at Hampden on Sunday to watch his new team lose 3-1 to Hibernian in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, but was unable to play a part in managing Gers through the match as his work permit was not finalised until yesterday morning.

After the defeat to the Hibees, defender Connor Goldson made the sensational claim that he felt Rangers had lost a bit of hunger since winning the cinch Premiership last term.

Van Bronckhorst is confident he will ensure the correct attitude is quickly fostered within the dressing room. Speaking at his official unveiling as manager at Ibrox, he said: “I expect that everyone is on board with me. It’s my duty to prepare players for games. I will prepare them in their attitude, their hunger, whatever.

“For me as a coach and a player, I think the hunger has to come from within yourself. It starts with that. That would make it a lot easier as a coach.

“Being involved in football all my life, I know what needs

HIBERNIAN have expressed frustration over their ticket allocation for the Premier Sports Cup final against Celtic.

The Easter Road club have been given just 17,500 tickets for next month’s showpiece match, which is just more than one third of Hampden’s 51,000 capacity.

Although Hibs took less than 10,000 supporters to Sunday’s semi-final against Rangers, the

Edinburgh club feel that their attendance at previous finals should have been taken into consideration and that they ought to have been given a 50/50 split.

A statement on Hibs’ website read: “As a club, we had a number of long and intense discussions with the SPFL fighting for an even split of tickets with Celtic for the Premier Sports Cup final at Hampden Park, knowing our history of selling out tickets for cup finals and for sporting integrity.

“However, they have come to the decision that we will have an allocation of approximately 17,500 tickets for the match. A decision that we are incredibly frustrated about.”

Hibs are, however, satisfied that the SPFL accepted their request for an earlier kick-off time for the final on Sunday December 19. The statement added: “On a positive note, we are pleased that the kick-off time has been scheduled for 15:00. We asked for this to be moved forward from the planned time of 16:00 to help our supporters with travel to and from Hampden. On top of that, we are also happy that our thoughts were listened to regarding concession prices for our supporters.”