Steven Gerrard has admitted that his side’s cup record isn’t good enough.
Despite winning the SPFL title on the back of some incredible circumstances a first cup win in management has proved evasive with six failures since the Liverpool legend moved into management.
One cup final defeat to Celtic, one semi-final defeat to Aberdeen plus exits to Aberdeen, Hearts, St Mirren and St Johnstone isn’t likely to attract the interest of clubs south of the border.
Gerrard was a picture of delight in the 118th minute when James Tavernier headed the first goal of the game against St Johnstone but there was a sting in the tail as Zander Clark popped up to create an equaliser for Chris Kane.
In the pressure of the penalty shoot-out the Ibrox men wilted with Tavernier and Kemar Roofe missing from the spot with St Johnstone converting all four penalties.
Afterwards Gerrard told The Herald:
We’ll take the responsibility for that and the reality is we need to be better in cup competitions. We’re getting to this stage too many times and getting stung – for example, St Mirren in the League Cup – in the final moments of games.
Four days ago we haven’t managed the game well enough as a team and we paid for that, two points were taken away. That’s a challenge for me to improve on cup competitions and get a group that’s capable of being better and giving our fans what they deserve, which is more trophies – not just one out of nine. That’s not good enough.
I think it’s the easy way out, a cop out, for us to use excuses from three or four weeks ago. We felt fantastic back then and there was a lot of relief and emotions. Rightly so, we deserved that but I made it clear the Scottish Cup was a priority and we needed to keep hungry.
A lot of this game was alright. We had the best chances but you need to take them, or you get stung at the end of games. Credit to St Johnstone, they got one moment and then it was on to penalties. We need to take responsibility for this and we need to be better in cup competitions moving forward.
Nathan Patterson missed today’s match after finally being suspended by the SFA, he won’t play again this season.
