By Sam Stone

30th Apr, 2023 | 5:40pm

Neil McCann in disbelief at Rangers 'absolute calamity' in Scottish Cup loss vs Celtic on BBC Sportsound

Neil McCann has destroyed Rangers after the Light Blues gifted Celtic the opening goal during their Scottish Cup semi-final defeat at Hampden Park.

Michael Beale’s side appeared to stop playing on the stroke of halftime, which allowed Daizen Maeda to tee up Jota to give the Hoops the lead.

Speaking live on BBC Sportsound, McCann couldn’t believe how bad Rangers’ defending was in the lead-up to the goal.

“It’s a brilliant goal from Celtic’s point of view. It’s so bad from Rangers. That’s an absolute calamity,” said McCann (BBC Sportsound, 14:19, 30 April).

“An absolute gift. How easy do you want to make it? Play to the whistle.”

School boy

Jota’s goal was a school boy moment from Beale’s side and gave the Bhoys the impetus. Up until that point, it had been a fairly even contest. In Old Firm games, you simply cannot give away goals like that. It happened at Parkhead and it’s happened again.

Until these mistakes are ironed out, Rangers will continue to struggle against their fierce rivals. Ange Postecoglou’s side do the basics so well and would never give Rangers such an easy route to goal. Furthermore, to give up such an atrocious goal in arguably the most important game of the season speaks volumes.

Beale needs players he can truly trust and unfortunately, there are far too many members of the Gers squad who fail to turn up on the big occasions and make the right decisions.

Hopefully, the summer window will see the Light Blues’ boss finally mould a team that is capable of beating Postecoglou’s side on a regular basis.

In other Rangers news, the club are clearly playing a sick joke with their supporters after they made an announcement about a senior player this week.