By Daniel Feliciano

26th Feb, 2023 | 5:55pm

BBC Sport pundit fumes at Connor Goldson after 'big mistake' in Rangers Viaplay Cup final defeat v Celtic

Connor Goldson was blasted by BBC Sport pundit Neil McCann for his mistake in the Viaplay Cup final that saw Rangers beaten by Celtic at Hampden Park.

It was a tense first half before Kyogo lost his marker to tap into an empty net on the stroke of half-time to give Celtic the lead, helping them to a 2-1 win inside 90 minutes to retain the cup.

But McCann, appearing on BBC Sportsound and on the BBC live blog for the game (26 February, 15:50) felt as though the goal could have been prevented had Goldson tracked Daized Maeda in the build-up.

“Connor Goldson is right out the game. Kyogo just walks into the box and it’s the easiest tap-in you could have in any game, never mind a cup final,” he said.

“Had Connor Goldson tracked Daizen Maeda all the way, he might’ve cut the ball out at the front post for the goal. That’s a big mistake for me.”

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Goldson is without a doubt the best defender at the club, and maybe because of that we hold him to higher standards than others.

But in this instance it simply wasn’t good enough by anyone’s standards for Goldson to allow Maeda to chase the ball unchallenged and then get the ball across the face of the goal the way he did.

James Tavernier should have done better too before initially losing the ball, but Rangers just weren’t good enough for the first hour of the game.

The second goal was eerily similar to this one, and once again should have been dealt with far better and Rangers only seemed to wake up after about an hour.

After that the pressure was relentless and Celtic were clinging on, but at the highest level it’s those super fine margins that are the difference and on this occasion it gave them the trophy.

In other Rangers news, Tam McManus absolutely furious with fans after what happened at Hampden Park.