Christian Nade insisted last night it was wrong to brand Raith Rovers' first win at Ibrox in over 55 years as a shock and revealed that he knew Rangers were beaten when their players started arguing amongst themselves.
The French forward completed a 2-1 win for the Kirkcaldy club in the fifth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup after Haris Vuckic had cancelled out an opening goal from Ryan Conroy. Nade sensed after capitalising on some catastrophic defending that the home players had lost their composure completely.
Nade claimed he spent the first half sharing jokes with his former Hearts team-mates Ian Black and Lee Wallace, but he said he knew Rovers were on the brink of recording a famous triumph when his opponents started bickering with each other towards the end of the second period.
"We came here to win and that is what we did, so that is a good feeling," he said. "It is probably a shock for everyone else, but not for us.
"We knew we would surprise people. We knew we had a chance after their defeat to Celtic. We knew they were not with their best confidence. We lost 6-1 the last time we were here, but it was not deserved.
"In the first half, I was joking with players on the pitch, with Ian and Lee. In the last 20 minutes, though, you could see that they were not confident and started to shout at each other. That is when you knew it was done and they could not come back."
Jim Baxter, who went on to become a Rangers legend, scored for Raith when they won 3-2 at Ibrox in November 1959. Nade admits he had a feeling there was history in the making when he was replaced by Martin Scott with four minutes remaining.
"I asked when I came off when the last time Raith Rovers won at Ibrox was," smiled Nade. "Wayne Henderson [goalkeeping coach] told me to shut up and that it wasn't finished yet."
Rangers, whose board members stayed away from the match because of security concerns, have now lost five of their last nine games under caretaker manager Kenny McDowall.
"I can only apologise for the fact we have been knocked out of another cup," said McDowall. "I am bitterly disappointed. Yet again, we have given ourselves an uphill struggle by conceding cheap goals. We have got to lift ourselves up and start winning football matches because there is still a long way to go in the league. The mood is low."
McDowall's decision to replace Black with Andy Murdoch during the second half was cheered by the home support, who booed the team off at half-time and full-time. "I cannot prevent that," said McDowall. "It is not for me to comment on."
Grant Murray, the Raith Rovers manager, revealed the victory rivalled last season's Ramsden's Cup final win over Rangers at Easter Road in terms of importance.
"This is up there with it," said Murray. "We don't get to many cup finals and that was a massive occasion. This was a totally different game and the Scottish Cup is the biggest cup you can play for.
"We reached the semi-finals a few years ago and what a feeling it was to walk out there. We would love to get to a semi-final again and we are only 90 minutes away from making that.
"We had the belief we could come here and get into the next round. In a cup tie like this, you want to use everything to your advantage and if there not being a big crowd benefits us, we are happy."
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