Rangers were once again the masterminds behind their own failure as Danny Rohl’s side exited the Scottish Cup to Celtic after a penalty shootout defeat at Ibrox.
Despite near total domination and facing an injury-ravaged Celtic side who failed to muster a single shot on target – Rangers failed to find the net over 120 minutes of football and lost out at the end.
Once again, Ibrox supporters have been left questioning their team’s mentality.
Once again, with a chance to take the initiative and to strike a blow against Celtic, they have fallen short – a familiar story of the past half-decade.
Failure to Capitalise
Despite his team once again faltering in the face of pressure, Rohl was dismissive of questions relating to his teams mentality post-match.
“Mentality. This word should not be the topic today,” he said in the Ibrox press room.
“I saw a team totally convinced to beat the opponent. If you don’t have mentality or personality, you don’t react like we did today.”
It is true, Rangers did dominate the game in terms of chances and possession.
Today, out of context, could be put down as ‘one of those days’ where a team just could not put the ball in the back of the net.
However, context, as always, is key.
Rangers’ record against Celtic now spans almost two calendar years without a 90-minute defeat, but they have exited both cups to Martin O’Neill’s side, while also throwing away a two-goal lead last week in the third league meeting of the season.
A much sought-after win was there for the taking, but the end result was a 2-2 draw.
Moving Forward
While calls for Rohl’s head are emotionally driven right at the full-time whistle and he deserves time after the mess he inherited, there can be no more slip-ups in the Premiership title race.
“We promised each other that we go now into nine finals and we try to win all those nine games,” Rohl revealed post-match.
“Six points in football goes quick. It could be two matchdays and then we will speak in a different way.”
That is true, but the recent draw against Celtic followed more dropped points against Livingston, Hibernian and Motherwell.
All of which have added further fuel to the conversation that the current crop are bottlers.
Rohl has promised a response, but we have had this promise broken by so many managers in recent years that it has fallen on deaf ears.
He said: “I will show them during the week how good we are and what we can achieve.”
The league conclusion is the squad’s final chance to win anything this year and to silence their critics – if they don’t, they will have nowhere to hide.
