If Rangers scored offside winner Celtic would want foreign refs and a public inquiry - Ibrox blogger

Jamie Currie was left gutted by the result at Hampden but believes his side showed they are ready to win trophies.

That was tough to take.

It wasn’t because Rangers were outplayed and outfought or didn’t turn up like Old Firm defeat earlier this season at Ibrox.

This was a sore one because it was like experiencing my Rangers-supporting childhood in reverse.

Instead of watching Rangers being battered for the majority of a game and Celtic not having it in them to get over the line, it was the other way about for us on Sunday.

And yes, we can point to progress under Steven Gerrard and the fact we did batter Celtic for the majority of the game but it seemed like Fraser Forster had morphed into Andy Goram with the number of outstanding saves he pulled off.

It left every Rangers fan in the ground exasperated. It almost felt as if we were like Tommy Burns’ Celtic side.

When you create so many chances and play against 10 men for just under half an hour and miss a penalty, that’s on you. This Rangers side has to learn how to take advantage of these types of situations when they are presented to them.

On the back of this result, Rangers’ mentality will be questioned, as it has been since they have come back to top-flight, and rightly so in some case.

At Hampden, I would suggest it was more to do with good goalkeeping from Forster than a serious mentality issue.

However, others will, rightly, point to Celtic’s mentality: battered for the majority of the game then they score with their first shot on target and see it out with 10 men to win the trophy.

Football is a strange game in that regard, Rangers couldn’t be faulted and were by far the better side on the day. If it was a boxing bout Collum could’ve stopped it after the first 20 minutes but it just wasn’t meant to be. We could have played until next Sunday and not found the net.

And that brings me to Alfredo Morelos – he has to stop letting this Celtic hoodoo of his get inside his head. When he’s up against them, you can never fault the wee man’s effort or commitment to the cause.

In fact, at times he tries too hard and often looks like a guy who has all the pressure in the world upon his shoulders as he seems desperate to score.

I am no footballer and it would be ridiculous of me to tell a 25-goal striker how to go about his business, but relax Alfredo, play the game, not the occasion and that elusive goal will come your way.

Other than Rangers’ missed chances, the Celtic goal was offside. And yes, you do make your own luck at times and Celtic deserve some credit for digging it out, but it wouldn’t be a Willie Collum refereeing performance if he or his assistants didn’t get at least one big decision wrong.

I understand why Steven Gerrard is an advocate for VAR and should it come in, it would help change these clear and obvious errors.

However, if the shoe was on the other foot and that had been Connor Goldson who was offside, we would be in the middle of a public inquiry and calls for foreign refs to be brought in and maybe even another referee strike. Collum is an average-at-best referee yet he continues to get the big games in this country. It’s embarrassing.

Rangers have to make sure there are no more slip-ups this month. The players have to use the hurt they are feeling and make sure they get past Young Boys and pick up as many points as possible in the league until the winter break.

The next five games will tell us all we need to know about the mentality of this Rangers side and now there are no grey areas. Winners find ways to win even when they are playing terrible.

If Rangers want to be competing for silverware at the end of the season, this is exactly what this team needs to do going forward.

This group of players are not terrible, despite what other people would have you believe, but they need to learn together how to get over the line.

At this moment in time, it may feel like the end of the world, and that the season could collapse, but there is a long way to go and still time for Rangers to right this wrong at the end of the month.

Most of all they must, simply must, not turn into Burns’ Celtic as I alluded to earlier. As much we all can appreciate nice football, if you don’t win much, then what’s the point? You can console yourself with hard-luck stories but those don’t sit in the trophy room at the end of the season.