Rangers captain James Tavernier insists the Ibrox side will keep on fighting Old Firm rivals Celtic until the end of the season despite a 14 point gap.
The Ibrox skipper, 33, was speaking after the 2-2 Scottish Premiership draw with Motherwell which leaves Rangers 14 points off their Old Firm rivals.
Ahead of Thursday’s trip to face Philippe Clement and his underperforming team, James Tavernier has been asked about the scale of the challenge this season.
Insisting that Rangers need to focus on getting back to doing the simple things right, Tavernier has asked his teammates to take a look at themselves, stand up and fight.
Rangers to ‘look at ourselves as men’ ahead of Celtic clash
”It’s obviously an Old Firm against our biggest rivals and a home game,” Tavernier told the press after the game.
”We obviously have to go back to what we were doing better at before these two games.
”That’s playing better as a team, perform as a team, defend as a team and be clinical.
”It’s obviously points that we’re obviously not happy about and we’re just going to push all the way to the end of the season.
”We were unlucky in the final, going all the way to extra time.
“We’re just going to go into that game and we obviously need to address what we need to do before Thursday and really look at ourselves as men, and as a team, to make things right.”
James Tavernier apologises to Rangers fans
James Tavernier has also been reacting to the vociferous reaction of Rangers supporters after the club dropped five points in the games away to St Mirren and Motherwell.
Those results have effectively ended Rangers’ chances of a title tilt and some Rangers fans have called for Philippe Clement’s head as a result.
Apologising to the fans for the first half performances of the last two matches, Tavernier insists the Rangers support is fully within its rights to criticise the team.
The Ibrox captain also insists his teammates will be fighting for the Rangers shirt as the club prepares to welcome Celtic to Govan.
”We can only apologise for the supporters because the last two games we’ve wasted 90 minutes on two halves where the performance level is not us,” said Tavernier.
”That’s unacceptable. You can understand the boos. We set standards and we’ve got to maintain those standards.
”If we don’t then they’re fully in their right power to let us know and we all know that. We knew it wasn’t good enough.
”This is thing we just can’t waste time on the pitch, we’ve got to be at for 90 minutes plus.”
When asked if he was backing Philippe Clement: “Well obviously he’s our manager and we’re going to obviously play towards the end.
“We’re going to going to fight for the shirt and we obviously need to look at ourselves and address it.”
