James Tavernier has warned Celtic there is WAY more to give from Rangers after the League Cup Final defeat at Hampden.
Michael Beale's men went down 2-1 at the national stadium as Ange Postecoglou and his troops won the first trophy on offer this season and retained their Viaplay Cup crown. Kyogo Furuhashi netted a double for the Hoops while Alfredo Morelos was on target for the Ibrox men but it didn't prove to be enough on the day.
Rangers' new boss is yet to taste defeat in the Premiership having watched his side once again display their powers of recovery at Motherwell to run out 4-2 winners after an early set back at Fir Park. That defeat in Mount Florida remains the only loss on his CV to date with Tavernier and co ready to show a much better performance.
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The skipper knows there is much more to come from his side branding that League Cup Final defeat as 'not good enough'. The rivals go head to head in the Premiership on April 8 before a Scottish Cup semi-final showdown at the end of next month at Hampden once again. They will then battle it out one more time in the league before the end of the season.
Tavernier said: “We have to, because we know the performance in the final wasn’t good enough. There is way more to give from us.”
Celtic are still nine points clear at the Premiership summit after their victory over Hibs. They've matched Rangers stride for stride with just nine games to play. After falling behind early to Motherwell, Tavernier scored a stunning free-kick before Fashion Sakala, Todd Cantwell and the returning Malik Tillman all got in on the scoring act.
He continued: “We conceded a sloppy goal but we dominated large parts of the first half. We were loose on the ball so we were unhappy coming in at half-time.
“We spoke with one another and came out for the second-much better. We got the goals that we needed to but we could have scored more.
“You can go a goal down, but there’s loads of belief in the team that if we continue to play the right way, we will create our chances.
“We have created a lot of chances this year. We’ve also missed a lot of chances. We know we can score more but we are creating the chances so that is a positive.
“I feel when we go down it’s still always possible to get the result we want. There’s been a few times when we’ve gone to Fir Park and gone a goal down and I’ve got the first goal to equalise it.
“But it’s good to show that resilience. We’re just happy we finished the second half better than we started the first."
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