During Friday afternoon’s press conference, as followed by the official Rangers Twitter account, Connor Goldson, who joined the club in the summer for a reported £3 million, detailed one of the reasons there was an extra edge to the Gers on Wednesday night.
Travelling to Pittodrie, Gerrard’s men knew that a defeat could derail their title bid.
A draw wouldn’t have been much good either.
In terms of motivation for three points, that’s not a bad starting point.
Also in the equation, was the recent record against the Dons.
Prior to Wednesday evening, the two sides had met three times this season. There had been one draw and two Aberdeen wins.
One of those defeats, came in the last four of the Scottish League Cup.
Petty pictures helped Gers
MORE RANGERS STORIES
“They celebrated massively after the semi-final, there were pictures on the wall of the match so this was motivating and gave us a point to prove. It was noticed, spoke about and gave us a motivation before the game”, said Goldson, as quoted by the Rangers Twitter account.
That certainly backfired.
It’s a little embarrassing from an Aberdeen perspective.
Sure, they beat Rangers at Hampden back in October. Yet, it didn’t actually pick them up any silverware.
They lost in the final to Celtic, so, at the end of the day, it was all rather meaningless.
You would think someone like Derek McInnes would have realised such brash gloating might have an galvanising effect on the visitors.
Big motivation was already there, but the opponents clearly provided a little extra gee-up before kick-off.
