Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield brands Hampden horror show ‘horrific’ as he confirms standards have dropped at Ibrox

The Canadian international was on target during the 3-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final loss to Hibernian
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Scott Arfield accepts standards have fallen at Rangers this season after branding their Hampden horror show “horrific” as they slumped to a 3-1 Premier Sports Cup semi-final defeat to Hibernian.

The midfielder offered no excuses for another below-par performance which saw the Gers miss out on a place in next month’s final against Old Firm rivals Celtic, who beat St Johnstone 1-0 on Saturday.

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A hat-trick from playmaker Martin Boyle had Hibs in cruise control at the national stadium before Arfield pulled a goal back, which proved little consolation.

With new manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst watching on from the stands, the Canadian international knows they let the Dutchman and the club’s supporters down.

He told Rangers TV: “It’s a terrible result for everyone - fans, players and staff. You can’t sugar-coat it. We are in a semi-final and we are losing 3-0 in 35-40 minutes.

“That’s not good enough, collectively and in individual standards. It was a horrific day.

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“There are probably a number of reasons when you analyse it. The overall feeling is probably our standards are dropping.

“We aren’t defending as well as we have been for a number of weeks now - as a team. Individually and collectively, if you drop your standards ten per cent in any competition you will get found out.

“We got exactly what we deserved and there are no excuses on our behalf.

“You want to get momentum and the fans stayed with us, but it wasn’t our day. Now we will come in for stick and rightly so.

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“Listen, I hated when I was a fan and I listened to players trying to sugar-coat it. There is nothing we can say. They are quite rightly going to be disappointed.”

With morale low in the squad, Arfield is hopeful the arrival of Van Bronckhorst, who officially checked in at Ibrox this morning, can re-ignite the Light Blues ahead of Thursday’s Europa League encounter with Sparta Prague.

He added: “Probably the only saving grace in this whole thing is the new manager comes in and starts his tenure.

“That feels a long way away at the moment but the beauty of being in these competitions is you don’t need to wait a week for a game.

“We have a big one on Thursday and hopefully we can put that right.”

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