'Still hope' - Rangers star refuses to accept title bid is in tatters as he explains biggest issue in Hearts defeat
Rangers suffered a second half collapse in Monday’s 2-1 defeat to title rivals Hearts to all but end their hopes of silverware
Bojan Miovski insists Rangers won’t give up on their Premiership title dream until it’s mathematically impossible - but accepts his side’s lack of consistency has proved costly.
A 2-1 defeat to league leaders Hearts at Tynecastle on Monday night has left the Ibrox club’s trophy bid in tatters, sitting seven points behind with only nine still up for grabs. There remains slim chance that Danny Rohl’s side can snatch second place from defending champions Celtic, and with it secure a Champions League qualifying slot.
That would require the Light Blues to win their three remaining games - starting with this Sunday’s Old Firm derby at Parkhead - and hope for favours elsewhere in order to overturn the Hoops’ four-point cushion.
And Miovski insists Rangers must continue to keep fighting. He said: “We believed, of course we believed - everyone in the dressing room believed we could do it. There is still hope, mathematically we’re still here so we will give everything until the end and collect as many points as we can.
“We are here now in this season, we need to finish this season strongly before thinking of next season. We have to give our all, this league is like a marathon - you lose games, you draw games, but this one was really important to win so, of course, it’s disappointing.”
Rangers headed east along the M8 to Gorgie looking to keep their faltering title prospects alive and they got off to the perfect start when Dujon Sterling’s deflected volley after 21 minutes set the tone for a dominant first-half performance.
Miovski rues Rangers inability to kill off Hearts in first half
However, it was to be an entirely different story after the break as Rohl’s side succumbed to goals from Stephen Kingsley and Lawrence Shankland as the momentum shifted in the Jambos favour to leave Rangers cut adrift with only three games left to play.
A deflated Miovski added: “The second half was disappointing, if you fight for the league you can’t play like we did in the second half. Of course we are disappointed, we started really good in the first half and should have killed the game in that half.
“We gave them a chance in the second half and, of course, when you play away the atmosphere was nice. We lost concentration and gave them an easy goal, in my opinion.
“We brought them into the game, we shouldn’t do that. In the end, it’s disappointing. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with that, we need to analyse and improve like the coach says.”