Cameron Carter-Vickers has admitted that the frequency of goals Celtic are losing to Rangers at the moment is concerning, as he echoed his manager Brendan Rodgers' view that the nature of them was also hugely frustrating.
That was particularly the case at the late Hamza Igamane winner for Rangers, with the Celtic defence failing to deal with an initial long ball out from the back, and then a slip allowing the striker to lash home the deciding goal.
When asked if the nine goals Celtic have lost to the Ibrox side in their last three meetings was a concern, Carter-Vickers said: “Yeah, I think so.
“It's definitely frustrating. They kind of create chances without having too much possession, I think. They wait for us to make a mistake and then pounce on it and go from there. So, it's definitely frustrating.”
"[The third goal] was just over my head. I followed (Cyriel) Dessers in and it went over our heads, and I wasn’t sure what happened. I think Ali (Johnston) might have slipped when he went to clear it.
“From there it ricocheted back into Igamane’s path, and he obviously scored the goal.”
Carter-Vickers is adamant though that the Celtic players haven’t taken their foot off the gas after their disappointing display, as he urged his teammates to react to the loss and finish off the season in style.
After losing at Ibrox in January, Celtic won six and drew one of their next seven league matches, and while Carter-Vickers says that the aim was always to sprint over the line in both the Premiership and the Scottish Cup, he is hoping for a similar reaction after this latest derby disappointment to ensure that they wrap up a treble in style.
“We wanted to do that before this game,” he said.
“After this game, we want to do the same.
“Obviously, we've got a comfortable lead in the table, and that's good. That shows the good work we've done so far up to this point. But we definitely want to continue until the end of the season.
“You know, our performance today was not good enough, and we've got to improve.
“I mean, it's a position you want to be in. You want to be as many points ahead as you can be. That doesn't mean that you can lose games of football. We know that.
“We never want to lose, and we always go out there to try and win and perform well. But yeah, that’s just it really.
“I don't think there's really a mindset switch from us at all. We're aware of the points gap, but we want to add to that if anything. But obviously, that wasn’t the case today.
“I thought we didn't start the game well obviously early on. Probably more on the ball than anything, we just didn't seem to keep the ball well enough and kind of pin them back the way we usually do and as we want to do.
“That kind of led to them having a few chances from our mistakes or counter-attack chances that they created in the first half.
“The second half was better, we obviously scored the two goals and progressed through the pitch a bit better than in the first half. We created a few chances, obviously, and it was just tough to concede at the end of the game.”
