Giovanni van Bronckhorst says fans were right to boo Rangers players in cup win

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has said that he understands why supporters booed his side in their win over Dundee, and believes they have the right to show their unhappiness at the performance.

The Ibrox side progressed to the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup with a 1-0 victory thanks to an early goal from Steven Davis but struggled to break down the Championship outfit.

The final whistle brought jeers and boos from the support at Ibrox, who were beaten 7-1 by Liverpool in their last home game but bounced back to win at Fir Park at the weekend.

Asked about the reaction from fans, Van Bronckhorst said he shared their frustrations.

“They are right, I can understand, I wasn’t happy either,” he admitted.

“When you play well you should get the applause but when you don’t play well at a club like Rangers they should boo you.

“We need to know and feel that the performance in the last half-an-hour is not good enough and we need to improve.

“You’re never happy after a bad performance and the crowd reacts to it, which they have every right to.

“All we can do, I can do is keep working hard with my players to make sure we are improving and can make the fans proud.”

The win put Rangers into the last four of the competition, where they will face Aberdeen at Hampden on January 14/15, and the team sits two points behind Celtic in the Premiership.

The Dutchman still has high hopes for the season but was clear that performances have to pick up.

“We’re still there in the league, working and fighting to become champions,” he said.

“We’re still in the cup competitions, but obviously you’ll also be honest and see when the performances aren’t well you have to improve.

“Tomorrow we need to analyse the game and speak to the players who under-performed and make sure it doesn’t happen again on Saturday.

“In the last 25 minutes we dropped our levels and we didn’t have any good movement. I wasn’t happy at all with our performance in the second half and we need to improve.”