Manager Mark Warburton’s post game thoughts following the Old Firm defeat to Celtic in the final fixture of 2016.
Facing the side at Ibrox on New Year’s Eve a Kenny Miller goal after 12 minutes gave us the one nil advantage but the visitors hit back with strikes from Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair to take all three points at this time of asking.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference Warburton knew it had been a game of fine margins and unfortunately though margins went against us as we couldn’t find at least a leveller across the 90 minutes.
‘We`re disappointed obviously to lose a game of football. In the first 30-35 minutes I thought we were good, came out the blocks and got the rewards early. I thought we looked very good and the second time Tav got to the by-line I thought we`d got the second goal. They scored after 33 and we had a little wobble, but we finished strongly, kept possession well, and that last pass from Jason Holt nearly got through to replicate the first goal, and that was a nice way to finish the first half.’
As for the second half though, we didn’t start with the same intensity and ultimately they helped turn the game against us by the end of full time – but that’s not to say we didn’t have chances and good ones at that.
‘The one disappointment was probably the first 15 minutes of the second half. We didn`t take care of the football, gave it away cheaply and allowed Celtic to dominate possession. They had some chances in that period and all credit to Wes Foderingham for standing up to them and doing well. Then we had chances, and you look at four or five big chances we had, and it`s fine margins – and that`s what it is at this level of the game. We just spoke about that in the dressing room – Kenny Miller hitting the post, Harry Forrester`s etc. so we have to learn from it, we are working and the crowd were magnificent again. It hurts at the end so we have got to learn, push on, and the boys will have a week off now, but they will come back rested for a strong second half of the season.’
One thing the manager hoped fans saw on the day though was the passion that the players showed to try and get ahead and then back into the game when we fell level and behind.
Speaking about the backing on the day, he went on to say.
‘We`ve spoken about the ovation Joe Garner got after the Hearts game, and if you`d have walked in at the 80th minute you`d have thought he had scored four or five goals. It tells you a lot about the crowd – we have got to always, always match the passion of the crowd off the pitch on the pitch. I hope the crowd saw today what it means to the players to wear the shirt – that`s fine, but we want to win games of football and take this club back to where it needs to go.’
He added.
‘There is a lot of work to do, but all credit to the players. That`s our home record gone – it`s the first league game we have lost here in 18 months, so we start rebuilding that record.’
With the winter break now on us, Warburton said the players would get a small rest and then it would be a solid week of training with the trip to Leipzig before going into the Motherwell clash.
‘The players have six days off now, and we come back for a good week of training, go to Leipzig for what will be a very good quality warm-up game for us, then back for a week of training before the Motherwell cup fixture. The boys deserve a rest – we are second in the table which we need to make sure we cement and then move on from there.’
