View: Rangers favourite sums up mood of entire fanbase as frustrations clear pre-Hearts

Nicolas Raskin has perfectly summed up the mood among the Rangers players and fanbase heading into Monday’s crucial clash with Hearts.

The Gers trail Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts by four points after suffering a shock 3-2 loss to Motherwell last weekend.

Hearts are now in the driving seat, while Celtic are positioned in second as the three-way tussle goes the distance.

Anything other than victory for the Gers on Monday will spell the end of their title challenge, though, in what would be a disappointing end to the campaign for Danny Rohl.

And Raskin has been sharing his thoughts ahead of Rangers’ do-or-die trip to Tynecastle.

Nicolas Raskin not playing down importance of Hearts clash

There is no denying that Rangers’ loss to Motherwell was a major blow for Rohl and his players, having worked so hard to get back in title contention.

In fact, many people had the Gers down as favourites to come out on top heading into the post-split fixtures.

All of a sudden, however, they are now third favourites. Yet all that could change once again in the space of 90 minutes should Rohl’s men overcome Hearts.

And Raskin has certainly not played down the importance of the game, accepting that it will be game over if his side lose.

“Obviously it’s not nice, especially when we’ve worked so hard to come back to that position,” Raskin said. “That’s the thing that is even more frustrating for us.

“But like I say, we can’t go back to that [Motherwell] game – it’s done. So now we need to focus on Hearts.

“We know it’s a kind of do or die game. It’s either we win and we are in it or we lose and it’s going to be very tough.

“So we all know, it’s very clear for everyone. We have to win over there if want our chances to keep increasing. Last week was very disappointing but now we can’t go back to that.”

Raskin nicely sums it up in that everyone connected to Rangers is incredibly frustrated right now, but hope is not completely lost just yet.

There can be no excuses, though. A 30-minute performance at Tynecastle is not good enough; not even a 60-minute performance.

It has to be 90 minutes of Rangers at their best in order to pick up the three points and send out a loud and clear message.

Rangers aiming to avoid eight-year first

Rangers’ loss to Motherwell was their first in the Scottish Premiership in 17 outings, having won 12 and drawn four of those.

However, not since March 2018 under Graeme Murty have the Gers lost back-to-back league matches.

That is a pretty remarkable stat and is not one Rangers will want rewriting come Monday night.

With Celtic travelling to Hibernian on Sunday, there is absolutely no margin for any further slip-ups.

Raskin knows that and so to does each and every Rangers player.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.