JAMES TAVERNIER admits the pressure got to Rangers as they let boss Steven Gerrard down and saw their title dreams ended at Kilmarnock.
Late goals from Stephen O'Donnell and Eamonn Brophy condemned the Gers to a costly defeat at Rugby Park on Wednesday night and they are now ten points adrift of Celtic at the top of the table.
Gerrard's side still have a game in hand over their Old Firm rivals but a wretched run since returning from the winter break has put the Light Blues firmly on the back foot.
The Killie collapse comes on the back of the defeat to Hearts and draw at home to Aberdeen as Rangers have thrown away eight points in the title race.
Gerrard admitted on Wednesday night that he didn't see the collapse coming as his side looked to build on their Old Firm win before the break.
But Rangers have now caved in for the second successive season as Celtic have moved to within touching distance of clinching nine-in-a-row.
And captain Tavernier reckons the expectation and situation got the better of Rangers when it mattered most.
He said: “We’ve made it harder for ourselves, definitely.
“We had it in our hands and knew what we had to do. It was as clear as day. Go all the way until the end of the season unbeaten and we’d be in a very good position, but now we’ve made it very hard for ourselves with a shocking display in the second half at Kilmarnock.
“It happened last year. It’s really hard to swallow that we are doing this. I know every one of the boys is disappointed as we let the club and the fans down. That’s the worst part of it.
“I know the gaffer takes a lot of the heat, but each one of us has to take the heat.
“He’s taken the brunt for us all season, but this one is simply down to the players.
“Every single one of us needs to look at ourselves.
“Yeah, definitely [we have let the manager down]. He’s improve everything since he’s come in the door. He’s improved the squad and talent-wise we know we are a better team [than Kilmarnock], but it’s how we apply ourselves and how we handle the pressure. Simply enough, we didn’t handle the pressure at Kilmarnock,
“All we can do now is try to be unbeaten until the end of the season and we’ll see where that takes us. We’re still in the Scottish Cup and the league, we’ve made it hard for ourselves. We’ll just have to see how it unfolds.”
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