TAV FURY AT CHRIS WINNER
RANGERS...0 CELTIC...1
RANGERS skipper James Tavernier last night blasted the official who refused to flag for Christopher Jullien’s Betfred winner.
Tavernier was raging at assistant David Roome after TV replays showed three Celtic players were
FROM BACK PAGE offside when the French defender stooped to conquer.
The full-back, who revealed Alfredo Morelos had been handed penalty duties before kick-off, insists Rangers will return stronger for the Hampden setback.
However, he struggled to hide his disgust that the showpiece match was won by a second-half strike that never should have stood.
It’s the second time in under a week Rangers have been cursing poor decisions by officials after John Beaton failed to award a spot-kick for a foul on Morelos in the 2-2 draw at Aberdeen.
Tavernier said: “Looking at the time, I did not realise it was offside.
“I have just seen the replay and three of them were blatantly offside.
“It is a bigger blow when you see that and you see the officials did not see that – not one of our players at any time was deeper than them.
“For that to be missed and the magnitude of the game, it really hurts.
“It was their only chance on target. At the time, I didn’t realise it was offside. It’s mind-boggling the officials didn’t see that.
“That hurts. We thought we really defended well, apart from the chance in the second half when Mikey Johnston put it wide. Those were their only two chances and we played really well.
“Looking back at it now you can’t really fault us. Fraser Forster had a terrific game, kept them in it and pulled off some incredible saves. It hurts seeing that not being given offside.
“I can’t fault the boys. I am proud of them.”
Tavernier was controversially branded a “serial loser” by Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton in the build-up to the game but proved he has the bottle for the battle with a stirring performance.
The full-back has yet to win a major honour since joining the club in a £250,000 deal from Wigan in 2015 under Mark Warburton but is adamant they are within touching distance of success under Steven Gerrard.
He said: “You saw the character out there. Not one person hid.
“This was a game we had to stand up like men and our squad did that.
“I have great belief we will bounce back. We have another ‘cup final’ on Thursday against Young Boys and we will come out firing for that game.
“It is obviously hurtful today but we are all mentally strong.
“There is a lot more to play for out there. With the squad we have we believe our time will come. It was evident in the way we played against Celtic. We showed how strong we are. We will bounce back.
“The Young Boys game isn’t a good way to rectify this but at least we can bounce back in the Europa League. It was not the case we played poorly against Celtic, we were outstanding.
“It’s just disappointing because we created so many chances.”
Tavernier rarely missed from the spot in almost four seasons as penalty taker but stepped down recently after misses from 12 yards against Progres Niederkorn, Feyenoord and Motherwell.
He handed the ball to Morelos in the second half when the Colombian was downed in the box by Jeremie Frimpong only for Forster to save his effort.
Tavernier said: “Alfredo was the designated penalty taker. I had great belief in him and he has been terrific all season.”