John Lundstram says that Rangers still believe they can beat Celtic despite another defeat in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden, but the midfielder conceded that they have to cut out the familiar errors that are costing them in Old Firm encounters.
Lundstram maintains that there is little between the teams, but bemoaned the lack of a ruthless edge at both ends of the field that allowed Celtic to rack up a sixth match against Rangers without defeat.
Despite this latest setback for the Ibrox men though that cost them their last chance of silverware this season, the 29-year-old is adamant they will learn from their errors and take the fight to Celtic again next term.
“Yeah there’s a belief there,” Lundstram said.
“You seen out there that there was a belief. We were the better team for large spells of the game.
“We had one cleared off the line, hit the post, missed an open goal with Fash [Sakala].
“So the belief is there but it’s just the fine margins. They are getting the fine margins better at the minute.
“[But] we didn’t win the game, did we? At the end of the day we’ve got to finish those chances that we created. We’re getting in the right positions, it’s just not falling for us.
“It’s just frustrating for us at the minute and it’s still raw for me. Going forward, we have to start winning these Old Firm games. It’s no secret.
“[I’m] just really disappointed but of course going into the next one, those fine margins I’ve just spoken about, we can get them and get the win.
“We’re disappointed. I thought we played really well for large spells of the game. But when we got to the final pass, that last bit of quality wasn’t there and at the other end mistakes let us down again.”
Lundstram was particularly disappointed with the goal that Rangers conceded, with so many players in blue collectively switching off to allow Celtic to create the winning strike for Jota.
“That can’t happen,” he said.
“The ball is still in play and the ref hasn’t blown his whistle. We’ve got to play to the whistle. It’s our mistake again. That’s disappointing.
“Of course it is frustrating. It’s frustrating for everyone but going forward into next season we’ve really, really got to nail it down because we can’t have another season like this season.
“We all want to win, we all want to do the right things, of course we do. But decision making at times has got to be better.
“It’s let us down, not just today but on numerous occasions.
“All the lads have got to rally round and have a big, big push now for the start of the season.”
