Cups...

At 0-0 on Sunday night I found myself running through the players on the field, trying to figure out who would take our penalties and I was not confident. How had we found ourselves in this position again? The hard work was done, we had swatted aside our rivals in the previous round, and from here on out it should have been a formality...

That train of thought though is likely how we found ourselves in this position again. The hubris combined with releasing the pressure valve that winning the league so early had brought was always going to make it difficult for the team to put on the same level of performance as the previous round.

That being said Rangers still should have won this tie and almost certainly should be planning for a double at the end of the season, and at 1-0 it shouldn't even have been a question. Yet somehow Rangers contrived to throw away a golden opportunity.

 Truth be told we should be looking at a treble. Yet for some reason, we just can't seem to do it in the domestic cups under Gerrard.

The ironic thing here is as a player Gerrard gained all his success in cups, European and domestic, but couldn't replicate that success in the league. Yet as Rangers manager, his first taste of success has been the league (Fifty F Five ) and he has struggled immensely in the domestic cups. 

He has particularly struggled in the Scottish Cup, where we have never progressed past the Quarter-Finals under his managerial leadership, with defeats to Aberdeen, Hearts and St Johnstone, two of which were at Ibrox. In fact, this season, which for all intents and purposes is his best season as manager, has seen us perform our worst in the cups despite us having our best chance of winning them with the other lot going out early.

I'm a big supporter of Gerrard and think he has done a magnificent job in turning our club's fortunes around ( The Gerrard Effect ), but I also believe it's important to call out shortfalls too. The simple fact of the matter is that our domestic cup performance under Gerrard and the team has not been acceptable.

Yes, we dominated the League Cup final last season, but we still lost. The fact that that is our only cup final in the 3 seasons is a worrying stat as well. There is clearly something about cup football that seems to elude this squad.

Some might say it's a mentality issue, and before this season I likely would have been one of those people. However, the fact the team has not only won but completely dominated the league in what is without a doubt the most pressurised season of Steven Gerrard's reign makes me doubt it is that.

Winning the league this season, and with the ease, it was done, has certainly bought Gerrard and the squad some good grace, but this is Rangers, and come next season that will be forgotten. This season is still a massive success. If you had offered any of us a league title or a cup double at the start of the season we would have taken the league without a thought. That doesn't mean we are satisfied with the outcome though given the circumstances.

If Gerrard had only delivered a cup double this season I believe there would be very serious questions being asked about his position going into the summer. But he didn't, he delivered what we asked for. We're back to being the kings of Scottish football, however next season we will be expecting another league title and at least 1 cup.

That might sound greedy, and it probably is, but again... this is Rangers. You're only as good as your next trophy. Gerrard knew this coming in. He understands the club and the traditions of winning. He knows and has spoken about, that the cup performances have not been good enough.

I have no doubt he and Ross Wilson will be looking to see what improvements can be made to the squad to ensure there is a proper assault on the league and both cups next season. Should we fail to improve those conversations about his position will likely start to crop up again.

All that being said, we as a fan base can certainly react in the heat of the moment and let our emotions take over. Following Sunday's result, I saw just about every member of the team come in for over-the-top criticism. Some sections of the support were ready to jettison Roofe, Hagi & Alfie, Tav received criticism and more surprisingly I saw some very harsh criticism aimed at Allan McGregor. Some going so far as to suggest he should be dropped.

That is unreal to me. Even in that game he made some vital stops to keep us in it. I understand the criticism of their goal, he should have come for it, but that has never been his game. Every player has some weaknesses, and that is his, if he had no weaknesses he wouldn't be at Rangers I'm afraid. Or if he didn't have that particular weakness it would be somewhere else, and that would likely have cost us more games than this one. 

That's what makes us Rangers fans though. We feel losses and disappointment right into our very souls, but it's that passion that also makes us the greatest support in the world. We just care so much about our club that we hurt when we lose and I wouldn't change that for the world.

It's that level of passion that, while making the low points so low, makes the high points so high. Winning fifty-five, Florance, the two helicopter Sundays. All those moments were huge, but because of our love and our passion for the club, they were so much more. Unfortunately, though that makes moments like Sunday that much worse.

It could be worse though, we could be setting off fireworks to celebrate our rivals going out of the cup the round after they knocked us out. The highlight of our season has been winning the league... 2 months before the end of the season. The highlight of theirs has been disgracefully celebrating the death of a 99yr old man and us getting put out of the Scottish cup by St Johnstone.

Roll on May 15th.

The Rambling Ger

Twitter - @GerRambling

IG - TheRamblingGer