Weir wants Rangers to bounce back

Kenny McDowall revealed talks with 41-year-old captain David Weir were high on the agenda (GETTY IMAGES)

Rangers captain David Weir has called for a positive response to his side's shock defeat to Hibernian as they prepare to face Aberdeen this weekend.

The Scottish champions suffered a 3-0 loss - their first in the league at Ibrox in 20 months - to a Hibs side who headed into the game joint-bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Next up for Rangers is the visit of another team who have had their problems recently, with a 9-0 thrashing at Celtic and a midweek defeat to Inverness leaving a question mark over Dons boss Mark McGhee's future at the club.

But Weir insists Walter Smith's men must learn the lessons from their reverse against Hibs and return to winning ways this weekend.

He said: "We just need to win the game on Saturday, to be honest. That is the priority.

"It's got to be short term and looking to win the next game and putting on a decent performance.

"We weren't happy with a lot of things in this game and we learn a lesson. It's important we come out on Saturday and respond in the right way."

Boss Smith admitted he had maybe asked too much of his small group of players in recent games but 40-year-old Weir claims fatigue was not a factor.

"If you look for an excuse, you will find one," he said.

"When you lose a game, you start to question yourself and you look for reasons for that defeat.

"I can only speak for myself and say I don't think tiredness was a problem. We just didn't play well enough, really.

"It was a very disappointing night. Losing 3-0 at home is always a big disappointment.

"If you look at the last couple of games, the results haven't been good enough.

"We got off with it to a certain degree against Inverness when they scored late after we were 1-0 up. In this game, we didn't get away with it.

"We lost a couple of goals quite early and I think you've got to give Hibs credit. They played well, they had a game plan and it worked for them.

"It's disappointing for us but you've got to give them a lot of credit."

The veteran defender also insisted the loss of both Maurice Edu and Sasa Papac to injury just before half-time did not have a major bearing on the result.

He said: "You never want to see anybody taken off the park and to have two lads taken off on stretchers is not very nice. But I don't think we can use that as excuse for the result either.

"We've just got to give Hibs credit and applaud the way they played."

Cetic's defeat at Hearts meant Rangers at least did not lose any ground in the title race, retaining their one-point lead over their rivals at the top of the SPL.

But Weir said: "It doesn't help us. We've got to look at ourselves and what we did wrong.

"We've got to learn from it and try to take the lessons from it. What happens in other places doesn't really affect us."