James Tavernier insists that John Souttar performed well on his Old Firm debut despite a huge error in the build-up to Celtic’s eventual winner.
The Rangers centre-back was drafted into Michael Beale’s starting XI to partner Ben Davies at the back after Connor Goldson was ruled out through injury.
The former Hearts defender has missed the vast majority of this season through injury himself.
But his recent return was certainly timely for Beale, as the Scotland international was called into the team to take on Celtic in the 3-2 defeat.
His slack and aimless back pass to Allan McGregor proved to be a killer blow for the Light Blues, though, as Jota rounded the keeper to score into an empty net.
Despite his mistake, Ibrox captain Tavernier reckons Souttar and his fellow derby day debutants put in a good shift.
He said: “I thought that the shape we had worked really well. After 15 minutes, we started getting the ball and moving it really well. We were frustrating them and creating our own chances.
“You’ll gain great experience playing in front of 60,000 with none of our fans here. I thought for Soutts to come in at the last minute, he had a really good game. But it’s just obviously small margins.
“I felt obviously the two goals that we conceded in the second half were… it’s obviously a hard one to take.
“It happens, but it’s a hard one to take. But predominantly throughout the game, they coped with it really well.”
Tavernier netted his 99th and 100th goals in the loss. While there were some faults in Beale’s team, he certainly wasn’t one of them.
The skipper led by example and very nearly had a hattrick to level the game at 3-3.
On the game, he continued: “I felt we could have created more chances, but to go in at half-time 1-1 we felt we could go out there and do the same.
“We did when we started the second half really well. As I’ve already highlighted, I didn’t feel Alfredo’s goal was a foul and then I felt the referee should maybe have been given an opportunity to look at it to see if it was a foul.
“Seeing their second goal coming off Jota’s arm and for that not to be looked at is obviously hard. But we as a team have to look past those decisions and try to get it over the line ourselves. We’re just disappointed that we didn’t do it.
“Our next game, the St Mirren game, is important because we need a run of consistency going into the semi-final.
“It’s obviously a massive game in three weeks. But St Mirren is massive because we need to get back to winning ways and work on ourselves.
“But, yeah, three weeks’ time is obviously massive and we’ve got to make sure we get in the final.”
