DAVID WEIR, the Rangers assistant manager, hopes to avoid a ‘massive disappointment’ against Hibernian in the Scottish Cup final this weekend.
Rangers have already won the Championship title and Petrofac Training Cup this season and will now look to add a third piece of silverware to their collection when they travel to Hampden. It has been a campaign to remember for the Ibrox side and attentions have already turned to their return to the Premiership as manager Mark Warburton looks to strengthen his squad for a shot at the top flight title.
There is still a huge 90 minutes to be played, though, and Weir, who won eight medals during his playing career at Ibrox, is determined to end the season on a high note against Alan Stubbs’ side.
“Being honest, if we don’t win it will be a massive disappointment,” he said. “We’ll go into the summer on a low and think what might have been. We have to do all we can to avoid that feeling.”
While Hibernian head to Hampden on the back of their play-off semi-final defeat to Falkirk last week, Rangers have had three weeks out of action as they faced an unwelcome break. After seeing off Old Firm rivals Celtic in the last four, Warburton’s side failed to win any of their remaining Championship fixtures as they were beaten by Hibernian and Livingston and drew with Alloa and St Mirren.
It is three weeks since the champions rounded off their league campaign with a 2-2 draw in Paisley and Rangers must now raise their game once again if they are to secure a unique treble of titles this season.
A behind-closed-doors friendly victory over Tottenham Hotspur last week gave Warburton’s side a chance to get back up to speed but the build-up has been far from ideal for the Light Blues squad.
“We’ve tried to plan as much as we can in regard to getting the best preparation,” Weir said. “The lads have had a little break at the start but have worked hard since.
“We had a good (bounce) game against Tottenham, which we were really pleased with in terms of the intensity and the way we played. Tottenham gave us a really good test so that was a really good experience.
“Hibs have obviously had good games in the meantime, good competitive games so I think we’re all waiting to see what the answer to that is. We’ve tried to prepare as well as we can.”
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