John Hartson claims Rangers will not have made ‘any progress’ if they finish the season ’empty-handed’

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Rangers host Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup replay against Aberdeen on Tuesday night.

John Hartson has claimed that Steven Gerrard would ‘at the very least’ want to say that he took Rangers to a final in his first season in charge of the club.

The Gers will be preparing for a Scottish Cup quarter-final replay against Aberdeen on Tuesday night, with the winner set to play Neil Lennon’s Celtic.

Earlier on in the campaign, Gerrard guided his team to the Scottish League Cup semi-final before they were beaten 1-0 by Aberdeen, with their star man Alfredo Morelos missing for that match because of suspension.

There is no doubt that they will want some sort of revenge when the two teams meet again on Tuesday night and Hartson claimed that the ‘pressure’ is all on Gerrard and his players.

“It is a game where I think the pressure is all on Rangers because they cannot afford to lose this one,” Harton told the Evening Times.

“They are 8 points behind in the league, they spent an awful lot of money in January on the likes of Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis and if you finish the season empty-handed then it is difficult to see that any progress has been made.

“At the very least I’d expect that Steven Gerrard would at least want to say that he took the club to a final in his first season in charge. So the onus is all on Rangers to go out and perform and it will interesting to see just how they respond to that.”

On their road to the quarter-finals, Rangers comfortably beat lower league side Cowdenbeath, put five past Kilmarnock in a replay and will want to be repeating the same feat against Derek McIness’ side on home soil.

Nonetheless, despite being eight points behind Celtic in the Premiership, fans may say that Gerrard has shown improvement since he walked through the doors at Ibrox.

But given the size of the club, and Gerrard will be well aware of that having played his entire career at Liverpool, Rangers demands and thrives on trophies.

Winning the Scottish Cup at the end of the campaign wouldn’t just be deemed as a success, but it would also stop their Old Firm rivals from winning the treble-treble.