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Steven Smith was full of praise for his young Rangers team who beat Celtic in the Glasgow Cup Final at Firhill last night.
The Light Blues won the competition last year and made it two in a row with an Old Firm victory on penalties.
Rangers took the lead through Neraysho Kasanwirjo, the Dutchman was back in action after recovering from a serious injury sustained on international duty in November, but Celtic equalised just before half-time with a Rhys Dargie strike.
Paul Nsio and Chris Eadie had chances to win it after the break but the match was decided on spot kicks and young goalie Rydnn McGuire was the hero with a save from Daniel Cummings before Lewis Dobbie put his effort wide of the post.
Smith was delighted with the mentality of his players, he told Rangers TV: “I am proud, if you asked me at half time I probably wouldn’t have been, I was a wee bit disappointed with how we performed in the first half.
“Especially out of possession just something about us wasn’t right, wasn’t aggressive enough.
“I was just desperate to get them in at half time to try and fix that then Celtic scored when they probably deserved it and made it a draw at half-time.
“We had a bit of work to do but I thought second half we looked more like us out of possession.
“Not as much quality as I thought we should have shown but you take that away and it is a cup final and credit to the boys they found a way to win and I am proud of them.
“I probably had a wee go at the more senior players, who I would expect more from.
“The younger players you understand there is going to be a bit of nerves with the occasion, with it being on TV, they know the manager is watching, all that sort of stuff so that is the bit that you get.
“But the senior players I was expecting a wee bit more and I told them that and credit to them as well they fixed it in the second half and they went on to win the trophy.
“That is where the mentality bit comes in.
“They suffered probably the last 10/15 minutes of the second half.
“A few boys were going down with cramp, a few carrying knocks so we had to suffer and we got to the penalty shootout but we know when you get there you have got a really good goalkeeper who you trust and he produced big saves and the boys that hit the penalties showed good mentality to go and finish the job.
“It is really important at this football club that you know what winning feels like and they experienced that tonight.”
Gers were also boosted by the returning Kasanwirjo who played his first 45 minutes of the year after a long term knee injury following his loan move from Feyenoord.
Smith was delighted to see him back in action and highlighted his influence on the younger players.
He said: “He trained with us yesterday and when first-team players come down you don’t really know them, you don’t know the character and the mentality.
“But from the minute he started training yesterday his mentality and character was first class and he rubbed off on the younger players really well.
“I thought he performed really well in the game as well for his first 45 minutes in a long time so credit to him for that.”
RANGERS: McGuire, Hutton, Kasanwirjo (Wyllie, 45), Campbell, Scott (Wark 73), McCallion, Adamson (Smith, 57), Curtis (Kerr, 86), Nsio, Burnside, Eadie
SUBS: Halliwell, Goodbrand, Fernie, Stewart, Christie
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