Rangers captain Lawrence Shankland admitted he and his teammates must take collective responsibility for their European exit after a disappointing penalty shootout defeat to Jablonec.
The Rangers skipper was left to reflect on a painful night in Czechia as the club crashed out before reaching the league phase of European competition in the Conference League.
Shankland was particularly keen to apologise to the Rangers supporters who had made the difficult journey to Czechia, insisting the travelling support deserved far better from the team.
Shankland says sorry to Ibrox fans
“I've not had to do it too many times in my career, but I think, as a team, we've already travelled with fans and apologies tonight. People have travelled to get here. It's not the easiest of places to get to, and to set up a performance that ultimately puts us out of Europe is hugely disappointing on our part,” he said.
“And as I said, all I can do is apologise to them.”
The striker admitted it was difficult to properly assess the performance immediately after the final whistle, but felt Rangers had struggled to deal with Jablonec during the second half.
“It's hard to analyse right now. Of course, we'll need to go and watch it back and see, but there were times in the second half that they were causing us a lot of problems, and we just didn't get to grips with the game at all,” he explained.
“In terms of moments, it probably felt like they were the team that were going to have won.
“On the flip side of that, our attack and play, we've never done enough at the top end to create a clear-cut chance that we'll have that moment, and that's disappointing and ultimately leaves us out of the competition.”
Getting up to speed
The defeat is particularly difficult for a Rangers squad that has undergone significant change during the summer, with 13 new arrivals after today’s capture of Kim Min-Su, with Shankland acknowledging that many of the players are experiencing such a setback together for the first time.
“It's tough. Obviously, for a lot of the boys in there, it's our first time experiencing it together. There's been plenty of low moments in football, but this is certainly one that's right up there in terms of how bad it feels,” he revealed.
“We're going to have to stew over it in the next couple of days and move on to Aberdeen.”
No answer for European exit from Rangers captain
Shankland admitted there were no easy answers immediately after the disappointment, with the priority now being to recover both physically and mentally before attempting to respond.
“To be honest, I can't really get an answer for that right now. It'll just be going back to the hotel and trying to recover, mentally recover as well, because this is a real tough blow,” he said.
“But we need to stick together. We need to find it in ourselves to have that togetherness. That's hard at times like this, because you can tend to go on as an individual and look after number one, and we can't have that in the difficult times.
“We need to try and stick together as a team and rally around each other, especially the boys.”
Defence for Curtis and Penrice
Shankland also defended Findlay Curtis and James Penrice, who missed their penalties, insisting the shootout should not be viewed as the reason for the elimination.
“Obviously, we're feeling it for the penalty shootout, but the responsibility wasn't on them for the night. It was on the full team, and over two legs, it wasn't good enough,” he acknowledged.
The focus for the Gers now turns immediately to Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Sunday and attempting to put the European disappointment behind them.
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