Tavernier apologises to fans following semi-final exit
Rangers lost 1-0 to Aberdeen at Hampden on Sunday
Rangers captain James Tavernier has offered an apology to the Ibrox support after his side's latest Hampden nightmare.
The Ibrox side have now tasted defeat on their last six visits to the National Stadium following their 1-0 loss to Aberdeen in the last four of this season's Betfred Cup.
That Hampden hoodoo started with defeat to Hibernian in the final of the 2016 Scottish Cup and has been followed up with five consecutive semi defeats.
Celtic have racked up a hat-trick of wins while Motherwell and now the Dons have also triumphed - with the Light Blues failing to find the net in any of those sad showings on the slopes of Mount Florida.
That miserable run left skipper Tavernier to hold his hands up.
"It's a new team so for a lot of the boys this is their first defeat at Hampden,'' he said.
"But I can only apologise on behalf of the lads today to the fans watching the game.
"It's not good enough for a Rangers team not to be in the final. We're really disappointed and we've now got a point to prove against Kilmarnock on Wednesday.''
Gers dominated at Hampden but with top scorer Alfredo Morelos suspended they lacked a cutting edge as frontman Umar Sadiq was handed his first start.
"It's obviously a massive miss to be without Alfredo,'' said Tavernier. He is our talisman up front and scores a lot of goals and assists a lot of goals.
"Sadiq was a real handful for the Aberdeen defence in the first half and we tried to get him into the second half.
"But it is a big loss to be without one of our main strikers and someone who has been putting the ball in the back of the net. It's disappointing.''
Lewis Ferguson's late header booked Aberdeen's place in the December 2 final against Celtic, but Tavernier's wait for his first major trophy since signing for Rangers in 2015 goes on.
He said: "It's disappointing. We're not in a final and for a club like Rangers we need to be in finals. It's obviously not good enough to concede a set-piece like that.
"They only had one corner in the second half and to concede from it was poor.'