CONGRATULATIONS: Rangers Former Head Coach Gerard Gallant Welcome back and is Now Appointed and Crowned as the General Manager….Read more

CONGRATULATIONS: Rangers Former Head Coach Gerard Gallant Welcome back and is Now Appointed and Crowned as the General Manager….Read more

Martin’s side faced an uphill battle to turn the tie around having lost 3-1 in the first leg at Ibrox, but things only got worse inside the opening 10 minutes as Nicolo Tresoldi opened the floodgates before Max Aarons was shown a straight red card.

From there, it was one-way traffic at the highest order. Hans Vanaken, Aleksandar Stankovic and a double from Joaquin Seys made it 5-0 as the two teams entered the break before Christos Tzolis added the sixth five minutes into the second half.

Martin’s men registered just one shot on target across the ninety minutes, despite the manager’s call to play an attacking line-up and calls for his players to show ‘real courage’ before the start of proceedings.

If courage was what he wanted, cowardice was instead what was delivered as Rangers managed to one-up Celtic’s embarrassing elimination the night prior, just days before the two meet in the first Old Firm clash of the season.

“There’s not enough harmony or care for each other quite yet. But I knew that coming in, we have to build that, heal and get stronger through it.

“There’s not enough players who want to fight for each other and the club yet. The window shuts on Monday. The harmony has been disrupted. We have to kick on for Sunday.

“I can’t say anything. I apologise for the performance. They’ve been great, the only thing we can do is really build a top performance on Sunday.

“Patrick [Stewart] and Kevin [Thelwell], I’ve had a chat with them already, they’re amazingly supportive. They knew this would take time, they understand the club’s position. Now we focus on Sunday.

“The only thing we do tonight is accept the pain and the humiliation we should feel and then use it.”