Cyriel Dessers admits Rangers boos BEFORE facing Aberdeen was tough to take but he still sees beauty in Ibrox life

As a slap to the faces goes, they don’t get much harsher than being booed BEFORE you’ve touched a ball.

But Cyriel Dessers can shrug off that cruel incident knowing that the same people who jeered him that day against Aberdeen have ended the last four games rushing to slap him on the back. The Rangers frontman continues to enjoy something of a love-hate relationship with the Ibrox faithful. For every slick finish like the one he scored in Seville last season against Real Betis or this week’s Old Trafford stunner, there’s been a clumsy pass or an ugly miss that have generated groans.

But things reached a new low earlier this month when the enigmatic Nigerian was targeted by a small but very vocal element of the Rangers faithful as he replaced Hamza Igamane seconds from the end of a Premiership win over Jimmy Thelin’s Dons. Whether it was unhappiness over the withdrawal of the club’s new Moroccan poster boy or lingering resentment over the fact Dessers did not step up to take a penalty against Celtic in last month’s ill-fated shoot-out with Celtic in the League Cup Final, only those responsible can explain their reasoning.

What’s clear is that Dessers didn’t enjoy the spiteful abuse. But as has been clear throughout his 18 months in Glasgow, the 30-year-old isn’t someone who dwells on the negatives.

It’s that ability to bounce back from the moments that have brought him critics that have ensured he’s still hanging around at Ibrox, while figures who signed around the same time such as Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes have long been shipped out.

And he’s certainly re-emerging as an Ibrox force having lost his place to Igamane. It didn’t take him long to get going, hushing the boo boys just minutes after coming on against