Captain says sorry after sixth Hampden defeat

Rangers captain James Tavernier last night apologised to his club’s support after yet another Hampden disappointment.

Aberdeen arrived at the National Stadium with their big game mentality being questioned. They left having secured their third League Cup final appearance in six seasons.

For Rangers, it is six defeats in a row at the National Stadium.

Tavernier knows it is not good enough. He said: “It’s a new team so for a lot of the boys this is their first defeat at Hampden.

“But I can only apologise on behalf of the lads today to the fans watching the game.

“It’s not good enough for a Rangers team not to be in the final. We’re really disappointed and we’ve now got a point to prove against Kilmarnock on Wednesday.”

Rangers dominated the game but for all their pressure, of the dozen shots they managed at goal, only one, from Tavernier, was on target.

The Dons, meanwhile, created one chance in the second half and crucially, they took it.

The Gers captain said: “It’s disappointing. We’re not in a final and for a club like Rangers we need to be in finals. It’s obviously not good enough to concede a set-piece like that.

“They only had one corner in the second half and to concede from it was poor.

“We’ve not been clinical in the final third like we were on Thursday when we took a draw against Spartak.

“We’ve got to have that cutting edge in the final third.”

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard vowed to get better players in January if there is no improvement and Tavernier believes his manager has made it is clear there needs to be a drastic improvement at Ibrox.

He said: “If players are not performing then the gaffer is going to look for other options in the transfer window and try to improve the team.”

“Gaffer is going to look for other options in the transfer window”

Defenders Andrew Considine and James Tavernier at Hampden