Only cup joy can save our season, says Gerrard

STEVEN GERRARD has issued his Rangers players with a ‘Save Our Season’ demand ahead of their William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final replay against Aberdeen.

Let down by another league slipup on Friday — a third draw of the Ladbrokes Premiership campaign with Hibernian — Gerrard’s first year in charge goes on the line on Tuesday night at Ibrox.

An unexpected Hibs comeback to snatch a 1-1 draw saw Rangers drop two more points, though Gerrard’s side remain eight points behind Celtic, who drew 0-0 with Aberdeen yesterday.

With title aspirations looking a lost cause, the last chance of keeping Ibrox silverware hopes alive rest with beating Derek McInnes’ side and setting up a semifinal against Celtic next month.

‘I think it will look an awful lot better if we get the victory on Tuesday,’ said Gerrard.

‘We’re all aware that it’s the last bit of silverware to play with, if you like. That’s without conceding anything — because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the coming weeks.

‘But, where we stand right now, it’s our best chance of silverware so that adds to its importance.

‘It’s a huge game. This is a target for us — and it has been since the beginning of the season.

‘We had a very tough match up at Pittodrie and I’m sure Tuesday is going to be another tough night.

‘Derek (McInnes) will have them fired up and they’ll be looking to do to us what they’ve done to us before at Ibrox.

‘The players are well aware of the challenge. I think they owe it to the fans to go and reward them with a big victory and a big performance.’

Gerrard stressed he is comfortable with the scrutiny falling on him as what was billed as a title challenge following victory over Celtic in December has withered since the winter break.

A loss at Kilmarnock on return to action following by dropped points to St Johnstone and now Hibs have proved damaging and, most likely, fatal to slim chances of overhauling Celtic.

Gerrard said: ‘We set out to try to do as best we can in every competition we’ve been in, and I’ll judge myself and the team at the end of the season. But you are welcome to judge me any time.

‘I’m not after any sympathy or for anyone to feel sorry for me. We have good players, we’re a good team and we’ve been backed. People will have their own opinion on it. But one thing I guarantee is, whatever happens — whether it’s a success or people deem it not a success — I won’t give up my charge to try to turn it around and get these fans some success. That’s a fact.’

Rangers were utterly dominant in possession and deserved more from an excellent first-half display than a 43rd-minute strike by Daniel

LAST CHANCE: Gerrard admits that the Scottish Cup is Rangers’ best hope of lifting silverware this season Candeias. However, the Ibrox side were haunted by their failure to bury opportunities created in that spell when Flo Kamberi struck with a quarter of an hour to play.

And, incredibly, Rangers were grateful for Allan McGregor’s brilliance to stop them falling behind as he denied both Mark McNulty and Kamberi again.

‘We need to get to a stage where we’re putting teams away and it’s done and dusted at half-time,’ said Gerrard. ‘Going in with a one-goal lead is never comfortable. It’s never enough because you know Paul (Heckingbottom) is going to get into Hibs at half-time and demand an improvement.

‘You always know Hibs are going to have one or two moments. But the fact I could be standing here talking about a defeat is mindblowing because of the dominance we had in the first 55 minutes.

‘That’s probably the most dominant we’ve been this season in terms of chance creation. It was one-sided, wave after wave from us.

‘Every time we put three or four passes together, we looked like we’d create an opening. But, if you don’t take them, you shoot yourself in the foot.

‘I think we had 15 chances to put crosses in, we got down the side of the centre-backs in double figures, shots on goal double figures.

‘But the game’s about being ruthless and having that killer instinct. And it wasn’t there.’

Gerrard reported that full-back Borna Barisic declared himself unavailable through illness on Friday morning, while struggling striker Kyle Lafferty was dropped from the matchday squad of 18.