MILLER FURIOUS WITH RANGERS’ EFFORTS

Even as the words tumbled from Kenny Miller’s lips, he could hardly believe what he was saying. He struggled to understand how this could ever come to pass.

The Rangers players bear collective responsibility, of course. Inability to put pressure on their opponents certainly represents the most obvious symptom of their shared malaise.

Within veteran striker Miller’s analysis, however, there was more than a nod towards tactics that didn’t work — and a need to come up with a more effective game plan at Ibrox on Saturday.

explaining what he and some of his team-mates were talking about during an on-field crisis summit while Moussa Dembele got treatment, Miller revealed: ‘We were trying to sort things out — because we weren’t in the game.

‘I dread to see the possession stats at that time in the match. They had the ball the whole time and we were allowing it.

‘We were set up in a certain way, to be hard to beat and hard to play through, but there has to be a time when you get some kind of pressure on the ball — and not allow them to have the run of Hampden. Because that’s what they had in that first half. We were trying to find wee answers and ways to play our way back into the game.

‘Half-time couldn’t come quickly enough and going in 1-0 down was the only positive we could take.’

Asked to explain why Celtic were given quite so much space during a torrid opening 45 minutes, former Scotland forward Miller said: ‘We were set up to play in a certain way that we never really got to grips with — especially in the first half.

‘Whether it’s individuals not doing the job or maybe not understanding the job... but we definitely gave them too much respect.

‘everybody can see that, watching the game.

‘Anybody who saw it would say they had so much time on the ball.

‘You probably only need to look at the possession stats — barring that spell when Celtic were down to ten men, and we had a little bit of the ball.

‘But even then, while we were on the ball, we weren’t clinical enough, weren’t moving it quickly.

‘We weren’t threatening their goal — even when they were down to ten men. That’s why the first half, for me, was really disappointing.

‘We never got out the traps, gave them too much respect and too much time on the ball.

‘We allowed them to do pretty much whatever they wanted with the ball — and it was similar to the opening game of the season at Parkhead.’

The fact that Miller draws a direct comparison between yesterday’s showpiece semi-final and that 5-1 defeat at Celtic Park says a great deal; if he speaks on behalf of the squad, it’s clear that no one at Auchenhowie will be pretending that this was anything other than a trashing.

For Rangers fans who must now fear if they will go the whole season without tasting an Old Firm triumph, these are worrying times. Just when they might have dared to dream that the gap was being closed, too.

Asked if this felt like a backsliding on a season’s progress, Miller insisted: ‘Is this a backwards step? no, not at all. It’s not a step back. It’s a poor performance and a poor result.

‘But it’s for us to put right. We’ve got five games left, we want to win as many of them as we can going into next season.

‘Then it’s obviously a case of rebuilding, of finding a way to be more competitive next year. That’s the goal for us moving forward.’

Addressing the perceptions that Celtic remain streets ahead, Miller conceded: ‘Listen, I think when you look at the league positions, it’s fair to say that, over the course of this season, they’ve been a long, long way ahead of us.

‘But, when it comes to a game like this, we should be putting on a far, far better showing than we did. There’s no doubt about it.

‘We didn’t stand up to the task in the first half. In the second, we were better. We had more of the ball, we had chances and we were a threat.

‘We weren’t a threat at all in the first half.

‘So there are positives we can take from the second half, moving into next week’s game. We have to learn from it.’

The idea that Rangers are somehow lucky to be facing Celtic again in five days’ time, that they’ll relish the chance to make amends for such a flat performance, is one that Miller only partially embraces.

‘Whether you play Celtic next week or two weeks down the line, I don’t think it really matters,’ he said.

‘As long as you learn. There is no point in playing them this weekend if we just go and make the same mistakes again.

‘As long as you learn from it, whether it’s this week or in three weeks’ time, that’s what matters.’