Despair pit

Tav admits Gers have plumbed new depths and must find a way to climb out of their crisis

- BY ANDY NEWPORT

BUSHWHACKED by Progres Niederkorn, clobbered by Queen's Park, dismantled time and time again by Celtic.

You have to say that James Tavernier has endured more than his fair share of brutal lows in a blue jersey.

So when he claims things at Ibrox have never been quite as bad as they are right now, there can be little doubt about the sheer scale of the disaster currently unfolding at Rangers.

The Gers skipper has become something of a walking, talking internet meme the longer his 10-year stay in Glasgow has gone on.

As captain of the club, it’s been his job to front up and explain why things have gone so wrong so regularly.

The trouble is that he's had to trudge out before the cameras so often that his stock reply of “well it’s disappointing” has now become a personal catchphrase.

The 33-year-old managed to avoid a repeat of that robotic slogan and all the other clichés he has fallen back on down the years on Saturday night as he was yet again asked to perform the postmortem duties on this latest devastating defeat to Hearts.

If anything, this was a Tavernier we have rarely seen in these grim circumstances ~ raw, blunt, exasperated.

He admitted to being “embarrassed” by the start to the season that has seen Martin's men fail to win any of their first five games of the season and confessed the Gers squad felt “ashamed” as they found themselves sitting 10th in the table.

It might have been bad before, but this is worse than ever.