James Sands admits his dinner date with US coach Gregg Berhalter, team-mate Malik Tillman and Celtic rival Cameron Carter-Vickers did not go down well with Rangers fans.

The New York City FC ace - who left Rangers after the Viaplay Cup final - met up with the trio on the request of US boss Berhalter who had watched the national team hopefuls.

But, upon reflection, Sands has admitted it was a major learning experience when fans were left outraged by the dinner date hours after Celtic had beaten Rangers 4-0.

He told On Frame: "It's not easy moments, I lived in a good area but once you go into the city centre after you lose the game, it's not easy. There was one game where we lost to Celtic and Gregg Berhalter was over watching and he asked me, Malik and Carter-Vickers (for dinner).

"That sort of thing did not go down well with the fans. But that is the sort of thing you learn from, I left all the green at home, it's great being in that city as they love their teams."

Sands went on to claim matches at Rangers were "not high level" apart from his contests against Celtic and in Europe - suggesting the main leaning came in attacking teams in a low block.

He added: "For sure, a lot of the games we played in Scotland were not high level but they asked different things of myself as a player than MLS games. You learn to attack a team that sits in a very low block, playing against a team playing long balls into the striker.

"Then you look at the 10-12 games in Europe that were extremely high level and the Old Firm games were too."

Glasgow Times:

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