Celtic factor adds to Rangers agony after cup woe as pundit spots Hoops door opening with Clement under fire

A pundit reckons there’s a Celtic factor behind why Rangers elimination from the Scottish Cup will sting so much.

The Hoops are now the clear favourites to scoop the domestic trophy and a Treble after Queen’s Park pulled off one of the competition’s greatest shocks. They won 1-0 at Ibrox to spark questions for Rangers boss Philippe Clement to answer over his future.

Former midfielder Derek Ferguson was on co-commentary duty and the ability to stop Celtic winning three trophies again is what he feels is fuelling the agony further. Rangers trail the Hoops by 13 points in the Premiership, lost the Premier Sports Cup final to their great rivals and are now out the remaining domestic cup tournament.

He said on Sportsound: “I said with about 20 minutes to go, I think it's a big 20 minutes for Philippe Clement. I mean, out of the title race, title is gone, it had gone just before Christmas. So you're left with the cup and I think that's why he started out this afternoon with a strong team to get the job done and they haven't got the job done so he's under real pressure now.

“This competition was so important because and I'll go back to because it's trying to stop Celtic winning the treble because that means a lot to the supporters because obviously it's your biggest rival so you don't want to see them going and doing that.

“So this is why I thought with that team and I thought they would have gone out this afternoon and got the job done but they were so passive. You've got to go and make things happen and they didn't.

Experienced SPFL manager Ian McCall was on similar lines as he jumped into the debate after watching the match from the press box. He said: “Every time Clement becomes under pressure they do something really good and you know the European thing and getting into the last eight and it was calming.

“I'm not saying seen progress in terms of results but you see progress in terms of now got two or three players that look as if they could go on with the player selling model. But this type of result when you're sitting 13, 14, whatever it is off your main rivals for the title...

“He's got to be under serious now but I'm still to get back into football so I never ever call for anybody to get the bullet. I think the noise will be the loudest it's ever been tomorrow morning.”