Unseen John Lundstram reaction to Celtic red card revealed as Rangers ally refuses to play blame game
Ben Davies insists unified Rangers are pointing no accusing fingers at John Lundstram.
And the defender says his side can use their resilient response to the Scouser’s red-card nightmare to gain revenge on Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final. The Ibrox side’s Premiership chances are all but over after the harrowing 2-1 loss to the champions. Philippe Clement’s troops were shredded by a weak start and Lundstram’s senseless ordering-off during a traumatic first period.
The midfielder lost his discipline at a key time with his red-card lunge on Celtic’s Alistair Johnston. Having just hauled themselves back into the contest through a Cyriel Dessers strike, their hopes went down the tunnel with Lundstram as Clement’s team were badly hampered in their hopes of finding an equaliser with a man disadvantage. In failing to do so, their flag dream looks dead, but Davies says the squad are dishing out no blame to the red-card sinner.
He said: “John has honestly gone for the ball. He was disappointed in the dressing room afterwards. But we are a team and we stick together.”
Unable to get a leveller and keep realistic title hopes alive, Clement was upset at the poor start. However, the Gers boss did take some encouragement from his side’s spirit to scrap and stay alive in the game through the second period playing with just 10 men.
With Hampden looming on Saturday week, Davies insists those traits have to be concentrated upon as the Light Blues look to lift again for the final two league games against Dundee and Hearts and then the showpiece at the National Stadium.
The defender said: “We can take positives out of it for sure, but obviously we are disappointed right now because we lost the game. We have left ourselves in a difficult position in the league but when the dust settles we will take the positives and look at what we did well ahead of a big cup final.”