James Tavernier and Graham Dorrans have been reflecting on today’s defeat to Celtic at Ibrox.
Hosting our rivals on home soil for the game in today’s early kick off, Rangers lost the match two nil and although the first half saw an extremely sluggish start, Rangers did end the half more strongly and for Tavernier he felt it was an inability to continue that improvement in the second period that had cost us.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the game, he admitted we had let ourselves down at the start of the second period as Celtic took advantage.
‘It is hard to take today, losing against your biggest rivals, especially in front of your home fans, is really difficult. There is nothing worse than losing against Celtic, it is a hard one to take. We have been here for a few years now and have lost more games than we have won against them, we need to improve and work harder. We showed promising signs in the first-half and we had a good first-half. Second-half we started well but we made two mistakes which cost us.’
He went on to say that avoidable mistakes were a hot topic in the dressing room, but the players had to take the positives and make quick improvements.
‘We have spoken about those mistakes and we just need to move on, work on Hamilton, take the positives out of this game and work on the negatives. All around the pitch you could always improve, I couldn`t fault the first-half but maybe we have to finish our chances that we do create. In big games like this you have to finish your chances because if you don`t then you will get punished. That`s one area I have thought over the past few weeks that we haven`t been finishing our chances but we are creating them which is a positive thing, we just need to put them in the back of the net now.’
As for the positives and with some players experiencing the Old Firm for the first time, he went on to say.
‘It is the first Old Firm game for a lot of people in that dressing room today but I thought Ross did really well today, he had a great Old Firm debut and Lee Hodson filled in great. It is one of those where the senior boys, or the ones who have been here longest, have to talk to the boys. They know now what it is about and we have to address the next three games that we do play against them. I didn`t speak to Ross that much before the game, you don`t want to talk too much and unsettle the nerves. He played in pre-season with us and did really well and against Partick Thistle he did really well too. I can`t fault him today; he didn`t look out of place today so I am really happy for him.’
As for Dorrans, in his own post game interview he explained.
‘We`re disappointed. We stayed in the game in the first half, and while they had a couple of chances, we felt we were comfortable. They had a lot of possession but we thought getting to half-time was crucial for us, although we are disappointed they scored early in the second half. After that, Alfredo has a great chance from which the ‘keeper has made a good save, but overall, we`re disappointed.’
He went on to add.
‘They have good players, and players who can win games. They have managed to get a goal at the start of the second half which knocked the wind out our sails a little bit. But, we grew back into the game, we were pushing on and could have got that equaliser with a bit of luck if the chance goes in.’
With Dorrans taking the armband for the game with a number of players missing, he added.
‘It was a great feeling, but overall, it`s disappointing. We set up to go out and get something from the game – but we didn`t manage to do that. We`ll go back, watch the game and see what went wrong.’
He ended by saying.
‘We`ll stick together. It`s obviously very disappointing for us but we will go again on Friday night and hopefully claw back some points. It`s three points dropped for us, but we have another game coming up on Friday. We find ourselves in this situation at the moment which is not ideal, but we need to stick together and we need to show what it means to us.’
