O'Neill hopes Gers trouncing a wake-up call for Celtic
Celtic's Benjamin Nygren and Rangers' Daniel Neil battle for the ball during the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final match at Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire.
Derek McInnes claims Rangers delivered the “big performance” required in their convincing Premier Sport Cup win over Old Firm rivals Celtic.
With no away fans inside the ground at the order of the authorities amid a ticket allocation spat between the Glasgow giants, Ibrox exploded in blue in the 22nd minute when skipper Dan Neil, signed from Sunderland in the summer, guided in his first Gers goal from the edge of the box.
New striker Kevin Kelsy fired in a second in the 59th minute, his first for the Light Blues, with Neil adding a third with another fine finish from the edge of the area in the 75th minute to seal Rangers’ place in the semi-finals, where they will play McInnes’ former club Aberdeen.
After being knocked out of two European tournaments at the qualifying stage early in his tenure, Rangers have won five successive games and McInnes underlined what was needed to come out triumphant in the biggest one.
“Delighted, obviously, to get the club into the semi-final,” he said.
“I feel the performance we gave today was the performance that was required to overcome a team like Celtic. Delighted we gave a performance for so many today, I don’t think we had a failure.
“And that’s what it takes to win, that’s a good reference for us going forward.
“Obviously we’ve got to take the good from the game and the feel-good factor and look forward to the semi-final. We’ve got to get ready for the next one. But delighted for the players.
“As I say, the game demanded our full attention today, it demanded a big performance. And delighted we managed to deliver that. And you see the strength of the club today, both off the pitch and on the pitch.
“And I think it does my players no harm at all, just for the ones who have been here to understand what it means to so many.” It was a first domestic defeat of the season for Martin O’Neill’s side, who rarely threatened the hosts’ goal.
The sides meet at Celtic Park in the William Hill Premiership next Sunday, where again visiting fans are banned, and O’Neill claimed the defeat has to be a “wake-up call” for his “second best” team.
“We were well beaten in the end,” the Northern Irishman said.
“I thought the first half we had didn’t capitalise when we had a couple of really decent chances when we had broken their press. But on the day, just second best.
“I think that there has to be a realisation how big this game is.
“It’s so important to the fans, so important to everybody. Still one of the great fixtures, mentioned in European football, if not the world and people have got to know that.
“That’s the point. We’ll have to try and learn from it.
“We play (Rangers again) next Sunday. We have a midweek game (Ferencvaros in Europa League).
“Hopefully, it’s a wake-up call, to look at myself for a start, then I look at the team. We were second best.”
Pandur, Penrice, Makhanya, Fernandez, Sterling, Gassama (Curtis 85), Raskin, Neil (c) (Dragojević 86), Kim Min-Su (Bouanani 74), Naderi (Godfrey 74), Kelsy (Miovski 87).
Johnstone, Tierney (Lotomba 80), Scales, Carter-Vickers, Donovan, Baur, McGregor (c), Nygren (Forrest 64), Tounekti (Haissem Hassan 46), Høgh (Oxlade-Chamberlain 64), Durán (Mheuka 77).
Nick Walsh
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