Russell Martin thanks Rangers fans despite protests in Premier Sports Cup win

Russell Martin thanked Rangers fans following the 2-0 win over Hibernian despite enduring an afternoon of protest against him at Ibrox.

The Gers boss was giving his team talk to the players in the dressing room ahead of the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final tie as over 1,000 supporters outside the stadium, disgruntled at Martin’s tenure since becoming boss in the summer, chanted against him and chief executive Patrick Stewart and the protests continued inside the ground.

Chairman Andrew Cavenagh had flown in from the United States for the game and he saw ‘Martin Out’ and ‘Stewart Out’ banners unfurled, and in the 11th minute play was stopped after hundreds of coloured balls were thrown from the Copland Stand into Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland’s penalty area.

Returning midfielder Nico Raskin headed in the opener in the 42nd minute before striker Bojan Miovski scored his first goal for the Govan side, which took Rangers into the semi-final draw along with St Mirren, Motherwell and the winners of Sunday’s tie between Partick Thistle and Celtic at Firhill.

Asked about the pre-match protest Martin said: “Well, it was actually right during the team talk, but it’s like I said to the guys, I can’t control any of it.

“And also a bit of perspective, like I said, yesterday in the press conference about some family stuff this week that’s been really difficult to put in some perspective.

“But we had control of the performance and we had control of, not the start of the game, but the fans at the end of the game.

“And I have to say I thought the fans were brilliant.

“They made their feelings really clear, and then once that was done, the team started playing with a bit of flow.

“I think they were really, really good. So I have to thank them for that.

“At this football club, it comes about one person really quickly.

“But it’s just not. It’s not. It’s about so many people, staff and the players. It’s become about me, not by my choice.

“So now, hopefully it’ll become more and more about the team if we put in performances like that.”

Fans’ favourite Raskin returned to the squad after missing out altogether in the previous two games against Hearts and Celtic due to an unknown issue between the two men, which Martin addressed.

“I just got to asked the question about, any regrets and all that stuff,” said the former Southampton boss, who revealed a chat with Cavenagh after the game was positive.

“I think probably myself and Nico will feel similar, it’s disappointing it went on.

“But also, maybe it’s necessary for this whole culture, this football club, for the players to understand, for Nico to really grow.

“But contrary to popular belief, we have a good working relationship.

“He wants to play, he wants to win. He did some brilliant stuff today, but like everyone else, there’ll be stuff he can improve on as well to help him and help us as the group.”

Hibernian head coach David Gray admitted his side fell short of what was needed to reach the semi-final.

He said: “I said before the game that we had to be at our best to win the game, to give us the best chance to go through and unfortunately we weren’t today.

“Not for a lack of effort. When you look at how the game started, I thought we were quite comfortable, restricted Rangers to very few opportunities and I thought we probably carried the biggest threat.

“But to find ourselves 2-0 down with how the first half went was really tough to take and then probably the manner of the goals makes it even harder.

“In the second half, we huffed and puffed without really doing enough to get back into the game, didn’t test them enough to put them under real pressure.

“So all in all, I can’t have too many complaints, I think the better team went through on the night.”