Gio secures repeat Rangers success and gets one over Gerrard

Giovanni van Bronckhorst first lifted the Scottish Cup as a Rangers player in 1999 and he has now repeated the feat as manager of the club.

Most importantly in the here and now, a domestic cup victory has been secured at the first attempt under the Dutchman providing the right precedent to take forward into next season.

Whilst not important in the grand scheme of things, this feat stands out against the failure of Steven Gerrard to get a cup over the line in six attempts, during his three full seasons at Ibrox before he left for Aston Villa last November.

The more things change, the more they stay the same 💙 pic.twitter.com/spJDsubcoZ

— sam (@smcg72_) May 21, 2022

Dominant

The manner of Saturday’s victory is what was most impressive – especially less than three full days after Seville.

Rangers state of fitness and conditioning is first class which is a credit to the technical staff such as Arno Philips and Craig Flannigan. The actual extent of this was hard to believe with Hearts visibly struggling to match their opponents application as the game went into the latter stages in extra time but that’s exactly how it was.

GvB’s team also dominated on the ball, with Jon McLaughlin not having a save to make. Hearts came closest in the first half with Simms stretching to make contact with Boyce’s set-up but that contact with the outside of the post would be as good as it got for Robbie Neilson’s side.

For Gio and Rangers, the victory was as essential as it was welcome, especially after the crushing disappointment just days before.

A Hearts win would have caused unnecessary noise and speculation but the reality is that it never looked likely, even after the ups, downs and emotions of the week that Rangers had.

It is a pleasing conclusion to the 2021/22 season and another taste of success that the Rangers players must hold on to, with a determination to push on for more next season.