John Lundstram lamented the same old mistakes that saw Rangers round off a year of Old Firm misery with their semi-final slip-up.
The Ibrox side were hoping for a first dose of derby success since beating their bitter rivals at the same stage of last year’s Scottish Cup. But instead they are now destined to finished a bruising campaign empty handed after gift-wrapping victory for Ange Postecoglou’s men. Gers were rampaging their way to Seville when they last toppled the Hoops but there’s been nothing but pain since that defeat in Spain, with four defeats and two draws.
And they only have themselves to blame for this latest letdown. Nico Raskin should have had the situation under control as he muscled in on Matt O’Reilly, but the young Belgian was among four players who were caught at a standstill as Daizen Maeda nipped in to tee up Jota for the winning goal. And Lundstram admits his team are kicking themselves after yet missed opportunity.
The Scouse midfielder said: “Yeah - [the way we conceded] can’t happen. The ball is still in play and the ref hasn’t blown his whistle. We’ve got to play to the whistle. It’s our mistake again. That’s disappointing. We’re disappointed. I thought we played really well for large spells of the game. But when we got to the final pass, that last bit of quality wasn’t there and at the other end mistakes let us down again.
“We all want to win, we all want to do the right things, of course we do. But decision making at times has got to be better. It’s let us down, not just today but on numerous occasions. All the lads have got to rally round and have a big, big push now for the start of the season. We’re going to keep [what was said in the dressing room] obviously internal but of course the lads aren’t happy. We spoke among ourselves but that’s between us.”
Rangers had their chances to put Postecoglou’s Treble-chasers under pressure. But while the Hoops were ruthless with their one big opportunity, Fashion Sakala was guilty of fluffing his lines when a James Tavernier strike rebounded off the post as he repeated his horror Hampden sitter the last time he was at the National Stadium for February’s Viaplay Cup showpiece.
There’s still time yet for Gers to land one last blow on their old foes when Celtic head to Ibrox for the final Premiership head-to-head on May 13. But it’s almost certain Postecoglou’s men will make that journey with the Premiership title already packed away in the boot of their team bus.
Now Lundstram has called on his team to regroup and make sure Celtic’s reign of dominance does not continue next term. He said: “Yeah there’s a belief there. You seen out there that there was a belief. We were the better team for large spells of the game.
“We had one cleared off the line, hit the post, missed an open goal with Fash [Sakala]. So the belief is there but it’s just the fine margins. They are getting the fine margins better at the minute. Did we do enough to win? We didn’t win the game, did we? At the end of the day we’ve got to finish those chances that we created.
“We’re getting in the right positions, it’s just not falling for us. It’s just frustrating for us at the minute and it’s still raw for me. Going forward, we have to start winning these Old Firm games. It’s no secret. I’m just really disappointed but of course going into the next one, those fine margins I’ve just spoken about, we can get them and get the win. Of course it is frustrating. It’s frustrating for everyone but going forward into next season we’ve really, really got to nail it down because we can’t have another season like this season.”
