Jack Butland could not prevent Celtic from lifting the Premier Sports Cup after a pulsating win over Rangers last weekend.
It was a heart-shredding 120 minutes plus penalties as the pendulum swung on both sides throughout.
Nedim Bajrami had given Gers the lead before goals from Greg Taylor and Daizen Maeda swiftly turned the action on its head.
Mohamed Diomande would level for Rangers but Nicolas Kuhn thought he had won it with three minutes or so to go as he swept home an Arne Engels cut-back.
It wasn’t that easy, though, as Danilo proved with a header just 20 SECONDS after the kick-off restart.
Kasper Schmeichel and Daizen were the penalty shootout heroes for Celts as they lifted the trophy.
And credit where it is due, Gers captain James Tavernier demanded his teammates watch the ceremony to perhaps allow more disappointment to sink in.
Tavernier also revealed his disappointment in the final result after the action and claimed it was reminiscent of their club losing the Europa League Final in 2022.
Jack Butland says it’s a ‘matter of time’ until Rangers beat Celtic on derby day
Butland, though, was not quite so gracious after the Rangers defeat as he insisted his side did not deserve to lose the game.
The Englishman claimed his side were left hurting after yet another loss to their rivals.
“We didn’t deserve to lose that game and penalties is a cruel way to lose as well,” Butland told Sky Sports.
”So yeah, gutted. I think you saw (our mentality) today.
“I think what’s hurt us today is giving away two goals after half time we could do better with, which makes the game then hard.
”We got ourselves back in it and didn’t deserve to get beat so I think there’s a lot that we can take from that.
”That’s why it hurts so much. We really felt like we had an opportunity to win that and like I said, penalties is a cruel way to lose.
”The boys didn’t deserve that. The efforts that they’ve put in this week deserved more from the two games, none more so than today.
”There’s no excuses. It’s a case of (being) gutted that we didn’t manage to get it done.
“The effort that the boys have put in in a really short space of time against Premier League opposition and today in a Final has been incredible.
”We deserved more from the two games.”
Rangers ‘held no fear’ of Celtic but still came up short to lose another cup final
Butland could not help himself from digging a familiar hole by promising a derby day win over Celtic for fans as he insisted it was only “a matter of time”.
”Today is going to hurt for a long time because it’s one of them where you felt like you did enough,” added Butland.
”The boys dug it out and worked extremely hard. A few moments have hurt us and we’re going to have to deal with that.
”I don’t think we’ve had that fear (of Celtic) but we’ve not also put in a performance that warrants the belief.
”We do believe and I think that performance today showed that we have the quality to compete and to beat them.
”We certainly have the desire and the energy to go in quick succession like we’ve done this week.
”So for us it feels like a matter of time but we obviously want that sooner rather than later.”
Butland echoed his manager, Philippe Clement, who has also had his fair share of bizarre rants.
Clement claimed after a 3-0 loss that Gers started better during the game and that things could have been different on another day.
The Rangers boss moaned after Sunday’s final about the referee and said his side should have had a penalty in the game.
The result takes Celtic officially ahead of Rangers in the trophy stakes throughout both clubs’ history.
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