Unfortunately, until Rangers win silverware, there will always be lazy assertions that any draw or defeat is purely down to a lack of bottle, something that has only appeared in the last few years.
Great teams from the last 30 years have lost cup finals, or been knocked out of cups by “poorer” opposition but it has always just been put down to how badly the team played, missed chances or defensive mistakes.
So why does Steven Gerrard’s side get tarred with this brush?
We lost cup games against Motherwell, Hearts and Aberdeen in his first couple of seasons and St Mirren in this, a statistic that certainly doesn’t help the defence when trying to argue against those that suggest it is down to mentality.
But we can’t lambast a side for having a weak mentality when they have not lost a game in Europe this season and currently sit with 50 out of a possible 54 points in the league.
There is no excuse for not beating St Mirren but the simple fact is we made defensive mistakes, nothing to do with fragile minds other than a lack of concentration, if anything it was over confidence that was our biggest foe.
The weekend result against Motherwell showed another side to our team, even when things weren’t going our way we kept going and kept going until we finally broke them down, the three goals came in the last twenty minutes through a mix of endeavour and perseverance.
Do you trust this Rangers team not to "collapse"?
Yes
No
We won’t be able to sweep every team we play aside and a lot of that will come down to the tactics that opposition managers adopt, but we have to find a way, and if we don’t, it won’t be for the lack of trying or bottle, this group of players have already show this season that it is something they have in abundance – a 19 point lead by the end of the Old Firm game on the 2nd of January would certainly put any such nonsense firmly to bed.