Michael Stewart has revealed some Rangers fans were content with being 1-0 down against Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final.
The Light Blues eventually squeezed past the Steelmen as goals from Cyriel Dessers and Nedim Bajrami flipped Sunday’s game at Hampden on its head.
But Rangers were poor in the first-half and went into the break trailing as a result of former player Andy Halliday’s well-taken volley inside the box.
Boos rang out across the stadium when the whistle sounded for half-time as Rangers fans another uninspired performance they’ve come accustomed to this season.
But knowing that a final against Celtic awaited, Stewart revealed that some Rangers supporters around him at Hampden told him that they’d at least not have to witness a thumping at the hands of their arch-rivals in the final if they went on to lose to Motherwell.
What Rangers said to Stewart during Motherwell clash
Speaking a day later on Premier Sports’ The Scottish Football Social Club, Stewart was critical of that viewpoint and said: “Anything can happen in a cup final.
“Somebody could get sent off, you could get a penalty kick, a deflection goes off somebody’s knee and you can hang onto something. You can never write them (Rangers) off completely.
“But I tell you, from a few of the Rangers supporters that were around me and who I have spoken to, there was a nervousness about even going to the cup final – this was at half-time!
“They were almost thinking, ‘well at least if we don’t make the cup final, we’re not going to be on the end of a drubbing’. I was thinking to myself, you can’t live or think like that.
“You need to be getting to the cup final and anything can happen. But I think that gives you a sense of where a lot of Rangers supporters are, they are apprehensive about going head-to-head with Celtic in a cup final.”
Rangers recent record vs Celtic in cup finals
Rangers fans have reason for feeling apprehension with regards to seeing their team progress to a domestic cup final against Celtic.
Aside from their obvious lack of form and shocking start to the season, the club’s record against Celtic in cup finals recently has been abysmal.
They’ve faced Celtic in three domestic cup finales since 2019 and all three have been lost, the most recent being in last season’s Scottish Cup when Adam Idah scored a late winner.
