Michael Beale admitted Rangers paid the price for “switching off in a moment” as he vowed to make the improvements needed to ensure the Ibrox side aren’t left empty-handed again in 12 months time.
The Light Blues undid a good afternoon’s work as they switched off to allow Jota to score the only goal of the game for Treble-chasing Celtic at Hampden in the Scottish Cup semi-final clash and ensure a miserable campaign for Rangers will finish trophyless. Beale was happy enough with his side’s performance but they lacked a clinical touch as they failed to make their possession and dominance count and made it four derbies without a win under Beale.
Speaking to Viaplay after the match, the Englishman said: “I can see it (the hurt) because I live with them every day. It’s fine margins. We’re playing against a team who have won two trophies to our zero this season and have a big opportunity in the final to win a Treble. The difference on the day between the teams wasn’t huge and we have to come back and improve. I’m sure they will as well. We need some fresh faces and a little bit more quality. A lot of the work we’re doing is good, it just feels bitterly disappointing right now.
“We had as much of the game as we could have wanted before the game and it’s come down to us switching off in a moment and unfortunately in a couple of moments in their box Joe made a big save from a scramble in the box and we hit the inside of the post and missed the rebound.
“On today it’s a lot of ‘what ifs’ but over the season it’s not good enough that we’ve fallen short in terms of winning silverware for our fans and the club. Knowing when I came into the club it was going to be a summer of change in terms of personnel, I don’t want to go too far into that now after today’s game - I’d rather just analyse the game.
“In the game we played well and were in it the whole time and we were disappointed in terms of not being able to get a result because I thought we performed well enough to get one. Longer term for the club we know there will some change in the summer and everyone is aware of that and we’ll look to move to that because we don’t want to be feeling like this at this stage of next season.”
READ NEXT
