'A Rangers captain admitting he doesn't have the mentality to play for Rangers' - Fans slam James Tavernier over programme notes

Ibrox skipper admitted pressure affected Light Blues - and fans didn't take it well

James Tavernier pictured during Rangers 1-0 defeat at the hands of Hamilton on Wednesday night

Rangers captain James Tavernier has been slaughtered on social media for comments he made in the club's match programme ahead of the 1-0 loss to Hamilton Accies at Ibrox.

Addressing the Scottish Cup defeat at the hands of Hearts that came just days after Steven Gerrard’s side advanced to the last 16 of the Europa League, the Gers skipper wrote: “There have been too many times we have done so well in a game, especially in Europe, and then the following game we have not produced the performance that we need to win.

"I hold my hands up for the goal we lost on Saturday but, generally, for the whole 90 minutes we were second best.”

David Moyo fired Accies to an unlikely victory in Govan – just their second league win at Ibrox in nearly a century – following a mistake by Tavernier’s defensive colleague Connor Goldson, as Rangers’ domestic woes continued.

‘Pressure… seems to affect us too much’

Tavernier continued: "I don't think we tested their keeper at all, we maybe got a couple of half-chances, and that's not good enough, especially coming off the result we had last week [against Braga in Portugal].

"Whenever anybody puts a bit of pressure on us in Scotland or gets in our face it seems to affect us too much.”

Referring to Rangers’ early season results – a 6-1 victory over Hibs was closely followed by a 4-0 win at St Johnstone and back-to-back 5-0 wins over Aberdeen and Hamilton – Tavernier revealed opposing teams now treat the Gers differently.

"At the start of the season teams dropped off us and we were scoring four or five goals, but now they smell blood straight away and put us under pressure,” the former Newcastle and Wigan defender admitted.

"We are not good enough domestically to react to that."

‘Get out my club’

Supporters voiced their anger primarily on social media, with one fan branding Tavernier a “f****** loser”. Another added: “I back you week in, week out but you’re done now, this has got to be the worst thing I have ever seen. [Rangers] should be ashamed for allowing this to be printed."

One Twitter user blasted the skipper, urging him to “step up and be a proper captain” while fans’ page Ibrox Loyal wrote: “A Rangers captain, admitting he doesn’t have the mentality to play for Rangers domestically.

“Crazy that it was printed, too. ‘Get in about us and we’ll s*** ourselves'. F****** loser. Get out my club.”