Rangers skipper James Tavernier forced to apologise yet again to long-suffering supporters for ‘unacceptable’ performance

James Tavernier has – once again – apologised to an increasingly disgruntled Rangers support after yet another abject effort.

Coming on the back of a dismal first-half display at St Mirren on Boxing Day, Philippe Clement’s players turned in another shocking opening 45 minutes at Fir Park.

While a two-goal deficit was eventually pegged back by Hamza Igamane’s double, Rangers still spilled another two points on the road which ensured the gap to leaders Celtic widened to 14 points.

Having been booed off at half-time by their own followers twice in four days, skipper Tavernier accepts the criticism is entirely justified.

‘I can only apologise to the supporters because the past two games we’ve wasted 90 minutes on two halves where the performance level is not us and that’s unacceptable,’ he said.

Tavernier roars in frustration as Diomande tries to close down Miller during the 2-2 draw

Rangers manager Philippe Clement was again left scratching his head at his side’s display

‘So, you can understand the boos. We set standards and we’ve got to maintain those standards. And if we don’t then they fully have the right to let us know. And we all know that and we knew it wasn’t good enough.

‘And this is the thing. We just can’t waste time on the pitch. We’ve got to be at it for 90 minutes.

‘It’s obviously really disappointing that the second game in a row that we’ve dropped points, and second game in a row that, (because of the ) first 45 minutes, we put ourselves in a position, we don’t take full advantage of the first 45 and then we’re responding second half.

‘And by our standards, that’s not good enough, and we’ve got to do obviously, a lot better than that.’

Rangers looked like they were turning a corner under the Belgian just a few weeks ago.

Sparked by a resounding win in Nice in the Europa League, Rangers won four straight league matches to give rise to hope that they could yet challenge for the title.

But having spilled five points in the two games since Christmas, any sense of progress has been lost.

‘Obviously, these last few games are nothing compared to what we were playing beforehand,’ added Tavernier.

‘We were defending really well as a team. (Now we are) giving teams chances. We were building something really, really good. Then the past two games we have been given sloppy goals away.

‘Obviously, we put ourselves on the back foot when we concede poor goals.

‘And that’s effectively what really happens in both games.

‘It’s obviously two different sides of football. You see the first half to the second half at St Mirren and the first half, second half (at Motherwell). It’s completely different.

‘So, we need to really have a look ourselves and address that.’

Clement didn’t start star man Vaclav Cerny at Fir Park as he felt the Czech winger was showing signs of tiredness.

Tavernier believes, though, that it was defensive sloppiness rather than fatigue that allowed Motherwell to race into a two-goal lead.

‘Well, if you look at the running stats, I don’t see any of that,’ he insisted.

‘You’ve seen that the lads were pushing completely to the end of the final whistle.

‘But it’s obviously small details about not giving goals away and obviously being more clinical in their box.

‘I think we maybe rushed a bit too much in the second half, when obviously we got level, and we could have maybe asked different questions, maybe moved the ball a bit more around the box. It’s just obviously small details like that, that makes a difference.’

Clement has failed registered a victory against Celtic in six attempts with Rangers’ winless streak in the derby now standing at seven matches.

Asked if there’s a mental hurdle the players must overcome to stand a chance of triumphing on Thursday, Tavernier said: ‘We were unlucky in the (League Cup) final going all the way to extra time.

Rangers’ Oscar Cortes looks pained as his side dropped even more points at Fir Park

‘So, we’re just going to go into that game, and we obviously need to address what we need to do before Thursday and really look ourselves as men and as a team, to put things right.

‘It’s obviously an Old Firm against our biggest rivals and a home game.

‘So, we obviously have to go back to what we were doing better at before these two games and that’s play better as a team … the performance of the team, defend as a team and be clinical.’

Tavernier insists the dressing room remains behind Clement despite that gap at the top widening over the festive period.

‘It’s obviously points that we’re obviously not happy about and we’re just going to push all the way to the end of the season,’ he said.

‘Obviously, he is our manager and obviously we played towards the end.

‘And we’re going to fight for the shirt, and we’ll obviously need to look ourselves and address it.’