JAMES TAVERNIER last night insisted getting a break from competitive football will give Rangers an edge over Hibernian in the William Hill Scottish Cup final next month and help them to secure a European place.
Mark Warburton’s side failed to win their second game in four days on Saturday when they drew 1-1 with Alloa at Ibrox on Saturday before being presented with the Ladbrokes Championship trophy.
The disappointing result against part-time opponents who have been consigned to relegation from the second tier came on the back of 3-2 defeat to Hibernian in a league game at Easter Road in midweek, but Tavernier, who netted against Alloa to take his tally for the season to 15 and break the scoring record for a Rangers full-back held by club legend John Greig, is unperturbed by the loss of form.
Concerns have been expressed that having three weeks without a competitive match will have a negative impact on Warburton's team at Hampden on May 21, but Hibs, who drew 0-0 with Morton at Cappielow on Saturday, are bidding to finish second in the league and may have to play in six games in the Premiership play-offs before that match.
“It’s going to be perfect,” said Tavernier. “We’re not going to be stung with a lot of games leading up to the final.
“We’ve got two games in the league in which we’ve got to finish off strong to get the momentum. With almost three weeks off, we can train hard and there’s also talk of a game behind closed doors.
“We’ll be fully rested and hungry to play again at Hampden. It’s a final and a chance for Europe, so the boys can’t wait for the game.
“We had a long time to wait for the game against Celtic after the semi-final draw was made, but the boys were very hungry from the start for that game and they’re very hungry for the start for this one as well.
"It's been a tough month so getting that break will help any of the lads who have had knocks or bruises get back fit again.”
Read more: Rangers won't get complacent after Celtic triumph ahead of Premiership challenge
Tavernier played for former club Newcastle in a Europa League play-off match against Atromitos of Greece and group games against Bruges of Belgium and Bordeaux of France in the 2012/13 season and admitted he is keen to be involved with Rangers once again.
Read more: Rangers' Halliday enjoys last laugh in Old Firm face off with Celtic skipper Brown
“It’s a great experience and you learn a lot,” he said. “It’s a different environment, travelling to hotter and colder countries, playing against different styles of football and different styles of refs.
“Getting into Europe would be a massive bonus."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel