The Scottish Cup final defeat to Hibernian last May is still fresh in the mind of Rangers with David Weir admitting this is added motivation heading into our campaign this season.
Rangers’ fourth round opponents will be Motherwell at Ibrox on Saturday with Weir insisting the dramatic defeat to Hibs at Hampden Park last season is a disappointment that will spur us on this term.
Ahead of this tie Weir – twice a Scottish Cup winner with Rangers and once at Hearts – was quoted by Sky Sports as saying.
‘There’s always a desire to get to cup finals, you can’t get enough of them. This club was built on league titles and cup finals. We did well getting to the cup final last year but obviously the disappointment of the result remains with you and that disappointment spurs you on.’
Quite a few of those involved in that final are still at Ibrox so they’ll be keen to right a wrong. However, a number of new players have joined Rangers since and they’ll also want the experience of a cup final.
This hurt is evident with Weir – as it is those from the squad involved – with the only way to ease that by having success this season, which is obviously the aim.
‘This group of players, which is a new group of players, want to experience that but obviously want to experience the upside of it rather than the downside of it, because it’s a long summer after you lose a cup final and the disappointment of it remains and it’s still there. But the only way to right that wrong is to try and have a successful run this year.’
Saturday’s game will see Rangers – as is usually the case for games at Ibrox – go in as favourites to beat Scottish Premiership rivals Motherwell. Despite the fact we’ve beaten them twice this season Weir knows it’ll be another tough game.
The Rangers assistant finished.
‘We have played Motherwell twice already and the games have been really close. The first one we won but it was really tight and the second one we needed a last-minute goal to win it. All games within this league are tight and teams make it difficult for you. They are very organised, Mark McGhee is an experienced coach and they have good players. So it will be a difficult day.’
