Connor Goldson admits Rangers have “lost a bit of hunger” this season after claiming Hibernian cup tie was over by half-time

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The Light Blues crashed to a 3-1 semi-final defeat to Hibernian at Hampden Park

Connor Goldson is hoping the arrival of new manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst will give Rangers a “spark” they have been missing this season after their latest Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat.

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The Light Blues missed out on a return to Hampden Park for next month as a rampant Hibernian side eased to a 3-1 victory and booked a final appearance against Celtic.

A sublime first half hat-trick from Martin Boyle sent the Easter Road outfit into a dominant 3-0 lead before Scott Arfield handed the Gers a lifeline.

However, captain Goldson, who blazed over from just a couple of yards in the closing minutes that could have set up a tense end to the match, sensationally claimed they were out of the contest by half-time.

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The centre-back admitted Rangers poor performance had nothing to do with Steven Gerrard’s sudden departure for Aston Villa.

Speaking to Premier Sports in his post-match interview, he said: “We didn’t deserve to win the game. At Rangers our standards need to be so much higher.

“Defensively we were poor. Three chances, three goals in the first-half. You can’t give yourself a 3-0 mountain to climb.

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“Attacking-wise, we didn’t create anything, again. As a team at the minute we’re not performing. It’s as simple as that.

“Back to front, not one individual can come off that pitch and hold their head high. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

“The staff have been brilliant and covered everything last week. We’ve let ourselves down. Players don’t follow instructions.

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“The first two goals are both from a corner. People are in the wrong position, something we worked on yesterday. From a throw-in, people were in a wrong position.

“And if players don’t want to follow instructions then we can’t blame coaches as they gave us the information to do a job.

“So we’re 2-0 down and they scored a third goal and the game’s over. We can be in there at half-time and say ‘believe in ourselves, blah blah blah’ but it’s over when you’re 3-1 down at half-time.

“That’s nowhere near good enough.”

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With new boss Van Bronckhorst watching on from the stand, the Dutchman will have to lift his players as he officially begin his post today ahead of another must-win Europa League clash with Sparta Prague on Thursday.

Goldson conceded his team-mates have “lost a bit of hunger” this season and believes Sunday’s defeat to Hibs indicated a change is required.

He admitted: “We know the new manager was there and you would hope the players would want to impress him.

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“But after that performance we need a change. We need a spark. I don’t want to say this but I feel like we’ve lost a bit of hunger.

“All of a sudden we’re champions and don’t need to work as hard - that’s wrong. I feel that’s crept in all season.

“We’ve not been good enough for the whole of this season and hopefully a new manager can come in and give us a spark.”

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Despite watching the entire 90 minutes alongside Ibrox sporting director Ross Wilson, Van Bronckhorst opted to remain in his seat as Rangers fell three goals behind.

Ex-midfielder Kevin Thomson insists the former Dutch international should have made his presence felt by taken some form of action.

He stated: “In my opinion, I would have been waiting for them at half-time.

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“There was someone (Walter Smith) whose memorial I was at a few days ago and everyone knows how much I think of him, he would have been waiting in the changing room.

“If I was van Bronckhorst I would have been in there waiting for them.”

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