Rangers Face Defeat as Hibs Deepen Tavernier's Farewell Gloom

The script was supposed to be simple. One last Ibrox ovation for James Tavernier, a comfortable home win to close out a bruising season, a hint of optimism for what comes next.

Instead, Rangers slipped to a fourth straight defeat, lost 2-1 to Hibernian, and watched a farewell night for their captain unravel into a public reckoning between the stands and the dugout.

Tavernier’s night of mixed emotions

The evening began with confusion and a sense of unease. Word spread before kick-off that Tavernier had withdrawn from the squad after being told by head coach Danny Röhl he would not start. Many assumed the long-serving captain would stay away altogether.

He didn’t. An emotional Tavernier emerged before the game to accept a presentation from club legend John Greig, marking 11 years of service that will end this summer. It should have been a moment of unfiltered appreciation. Instead, it sat awkwardly over a team selection that excluded him and a support already raw from a collapsed title challenge.

Röhl later admitted he was “really surprised” Tavernier chose not to be part of the matchday group, revealing he had planned to give him minutes from the bench. The manager made it clear he did not like the decision, stressing that respect and his authority over football matters could not be compromised.

The tension in that relationship framed the night. What followed on the pitch only darkened the mood.

Boyle strikes, Rangers respond

Rangers actually started with intent. Youssef Chermiti forced an early save from Raphael Sallinger, the Hibs goalkeeper tipping a header wide to quieten any sense of an Ibrox onslaught before it had begun.

Then the air went out of the place.

Jordan Obita found space on the left and whipped in a cross. Martin Boyle, unmarked and ruthless, met it with a thumping volley that skidded under Jack Butland from 10 yards. A depleted Ibrox, already stripped of its usual noise by disillusion and empty seats, fell almost silent.

Rangers did not fold. They drove forward, but Sallinger turned the first half into his own highlight reel. He denied Thelo Aasgaard with a sharp low stop, watched Dujon Sterling blaze over, then stood tall to block Chermiti when the striker burst through on goal.

Connor Barron thought he had beaten him with a 25-yard drive that curled towards the top corner. Sallinger stretched and clawed it away. Mikey Moore had a go. Aasgaard curled just wide. Each miss tightened the knot in the stands.

It felt like Rangers would need a moment of real quality to break him. Aasgaard supplied it.

Right on the cusp of half-time, the Norwegian stepped up over a free-kick on the edge of the box and ripped it into the top corner. Power, precision, no chance for Sallinger this time. Ibrox finally had something to roar.

Pressure without payoff

Rangers came out after the interval as if determined to salvage more than just a point from a wretched run-in. Barron fired wide. Chermiti dragged another effort past the post. The momentum swung their way, and Hibs retreated deeper.

Bojan Miovski then wasted the kind of chance that defines nights like this. A loose ball dropped kindly to him in the box. The net seemed to open up. He leaned back and sent it over. Groans, then anger, rolled down from the stands.

Rangers kept pushing, but the composure drained out of them. Passes went astray. Attacks broke down. Every miscontrol was met with a sharper edge of frustration from the crowd.

Hibs sensed it. David Gray’s side, who had absorbed pressure for long spells, began to play with more freedom on the break. Ante Suto smashed into the side netting to serve notice that they were not just clinging on.

Scarlett silences Ibrox

As the clock ticked into the final minute of normal time, the game hung in that familiar late-season limbo: one team desperate, the other opportunistic.

Hibs struck.

Felix Passlack broke free down the right, surging into space that Rangers failed to close. His low cross skidded through the six-yard box. Dane Scarlett, on loan from Tottenham, threw himself at it and bundled the ball over the line.

Boos rained down. Not the scattered dissent of a bad night, but the full-throated anger of a support who have watched a title challenge disintegrate with three post-split defeats before this and now a fourth to underline the collapse.

Butland had already produced a double save from Scarlett and Passlack earlier to keep Rangers alive. This time he could do nothing.

Röhl fronts up as questions grow

When the final whistle went, the focus did not turn to Tavernier. It turned to Röhl.

The head coach walked towards the home end and stayed there, talking, gesturing, listening as fans vented their fury. He later described it as part of his responsibility: to stand in front, to lead, to explain.

His verdict was blunt. The last four matchdays, he said, had been “not good enough” and a “mirror” of what must change. He called for a “strong cut”, for new standards on and off the pitch, and insisted the club could not accept this kind of season ending again.

On Tavernier, he did not hide his disappointment. He wanted his captain on the pitch one last time, even from the bench. Tavernier chose otherwise. Röhl stressed he is the manager, he makes the decisions, and mutual respect has to hold.

Those are not throwaway lines. They signal a summer of hard choices, big departures, and a squad reset that now feels unavoidable.

Stark stakes on the final day

Rangers go to Falkirk on the final day not chasing glory but trying to avoid a fifth straight defeat, a run that would underline just how dramatically their campaign has tailed off.

Hibernian’s picture is brighter. Gray’s side know that victory over Motherwell at Easter Road will secure fourth place, a tangible reward for a disciplined, resilient performance in Glasgow and a late-season surge that has them finishing strong.

Ibrox, though, is left wrestling with a harsher reality. A captain on his way out, a manager demanding a reset, a support that has lost patience, and a team limping towards the finish line.

The summer promises change. The real question is how deep Röhl’s “strong cut” will go – and how long it will take Rangers to look like contenders again, rather than a club picking through the wreckage of another season that slipped away.