Jack Butland believes cup final performance proves Rangers can compete with Celtic
Rangers lost on penalties following a 3-3 draw at Hampden Park
Jack Butland believes Rangers proved in Sunday's agonising Premier Sports Cup final defeat by Celtic that they have no Old Firm inferiority complex.
The Hoops claimed the first trophy of the season after a 5-4 penalty shootout victory following a thrilling 3-3 draw at Hampden.
It means Gers, who are 11 points adrift of their city rivals in the William Hill Premiership, have failed to win any of the seven derbies since Brendan Rodgers returned for his second spell in charge of Celtic in the summer of 2023.
However, goalkeeper Butland is adamant Sunday's performance, in which his side led 1-0 at the break before equalising twice in the second half, shows they are capable of matching their old foes.
"It's going to hurt for a long time because it felt like we did enough," said the Englishman. "The boys dug it out and they worked extremely hard. A few moments hurt us, but we're going to have to deal with that.
"Me personally, I don't think we've had that fear (people talk about), but (until Sunday) we've not also put in a performance that warrants the belief.
"We do believe, and I think that performance showed that we have the quality to compete and to beat them. For us it feels like a matter of time, but we also want that sooner rather than later."
Rangers' form has improved in recent weeks after a grim start to the season.
Despite the "complete and utter heartache" of Sunday, Butland believes the fact they followed up a strong performance in last Thursday's 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham in the Europa League with such a competitive display against Celtic indicates they are heading in the right direction.
"What hurt us was giving away two goals after half-time, which we could do better with," said the goalkeeper. "That makes the game then hard, but we got ourselves back in it and didn't deserve to get beat. I think there's a lot that we can take from that.
"That's why it hurts so much. We really felt that we had an opportunity to win that. Penalties is a cruel way to lose, but the boys didn't deserve that. The efforts that they've put in this week deserved more from the two games.
"We're 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 then in a final has been incredible and we deserved more from the two games.
"It's obviously complete and utter heartache in that sense that we haven't got the result that we wanted. We'll look at it in a few days and there'll be things that we'll be proud of in terms of what we did and what we showed, but it is a difficult one."
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