Rangers midfielder Jordan Rossiter has claimed the players have urged one another to “show a bit of courage” and fight back after they were knocked out of the Europa League by Progres Niederkorn on Tuesday.
The young midfielder told the official Rangers website that the squad are shattered by the embarrassment that was immediately ranked as one of the worst results in the club’s history.
“We know we have let ourselves down and we have let the whole club down and we have let the fans down who have paid good money to come out here and travel,” Rossiter said.
“We are all not going to forget this for a long time and I know the fans certainly won’t either but the lads are already speaking and saying we need to get together now, show a bit of courage and come out of this.”
Pedro Caixinha’s side entered the second leg of their Europa League qualifier on Tuesday leading 1-0 on aggregate, and needed to prevent the Luxembourg club from scoring.
However, the virtually unknown club managed to net two goals against the Gers, which sent the club through to the next stages with 2-1 on aggregate.
The loss came as a shock as Caixinha’s side faced one of the lowest ranked teams in the qualifying rounds after Progres finished in fourth place in their countries National Division last season.
Gers’ previous match on Thursday was the club’s first European appearance in six years after they crashed out of the Europa League qualifiers against Slovenian side NK Maribor back in 2011.
Rossiter spoke to Rangers TV after the match and shared his disappointment at the club’s defeat.
The 20-year-old midfielder added on Rangers’ official website: “It is massively disappointing, I cannot apologise to the fans enough, we simply weren’t good enough tonight and all the lads know that.
“We did a lot of things wrong tonight. It is easy for me to sit here and say we weren’t good at this or that but at the end of the day we are out of the Europa League in the first qualifying round.”
The former Liverpool Under-23 player made his first start for Rangers on Tuesday after he spent the previous season sidelined with a calf injury.
Rossiter made an appearance during the first leg after he replaced Niko Kranjcar in the second half, but was named in Caixinha’s starting XI in place of Jason Holt.
The midfielder said that he knew that fans wouldn’t forget the defeat in a hurry, and apologised to the Gers supporters.