'There's no one angrier than we are' - John Lundstram's Rangers Q+A

Here is everything he had to say.

How tough a week has it been in the aftermath of that League Cup final defeat? 

It's been tough. Especially me on a personal level going home after that for the next day or two and even now it still stings a little bit. I had a really miserable couple of days but we're now trying to look forward to the game on the weekend and just trying to put that right. 

What went wrong and what went right in terms of what you can learn from? 

Loads to learn. I just think it's tough to really put your finger on what exactly went wrong. I thought they come out and played really well and we weren’t up to our standards. So a mix of that obviously doesn't combine well and unfortunately for us with that combination, the result went against us. 

How do you make sure there’s not a hangover from this? 

No, that's it. And that's what we're trying to do now this week, just to build towards the game on the weekend, just to make sure that's out of our system. We spoke to each other and we know that we've got to do better and that starts this weekend. 

Do you understand the fans' anger? 

Of course. As players at the end of the day, there’s no one angrier than we are. Myself, going home after that, reflecting on I was just so disappointed in the performance and the performance levels. First and foremost you’ve got to look at yourself and I have especially. I take a lot of responsibility for my own performance. I was hugely disappointed and angry with myself and angry with the team but we’ve just all got to stick together. 

Were you 100 per cent fit or did you take a gamble on your fitness? 

No, no, of course not. No, definitely not. 

How do you reflect on your own performance? 

Just disappointing that I wasn't involved in the game as much as I'd like to be. For one reason or the other, we were just a yard off it here and there every time we were getting up to the ball. We couldn't seem to get close enough as we wanted to. Of course, that wasn't the game plan going into the game. We were wanting to get up in the faces, but the way the game panned out I just couldn't quite get as close as I really wanted to. Every time I was getting up to the ball I was just never close enough. In terms of on the ball, first half, I just didn't have a chance to get on the ball as much as I'd like. Second half I was growing into the game and then the gaffer’s made the decision to change the three to get to try and get another goal. So yeah, disappointed with the whole result and of course first and foremost, I always look at my own performance. 

READ MORE: Rangers' Viaplay Cup final defeat was decided by these two key errors

There's a lot of talk about the gap between Celtic and Rangers. What did Sunday show for you in terms of that gap? 

It's just one game. We didn't turn up and they turned up. I think the combination as I just said, didn't complement each other well. We didn't turn up, they turned up so it looks like there's a massive gap. It looked like that on the weekend, but in my personal opinion, I don't think it is massive. 

Have the players spoken about why there wasn’t that performance level in a cup final? 

Of course, we spoke but we keep that internal. We're just as not happy as the fans are, we're fans and players at the same time, so it's tough for us as well. All we can do now is try and repay the fans and try and go on a run as we have been. 

Are you confident it can still be a positive season and what does that look like? 

I think everyone's aim now is to try and push the league as close as we can. We've still got to play Celtic again and hopefully, get to another cup final. If we can keep pushing and pushing for the league, that would be great if we can push them close, brilliant. If we can get to the Scottish Cup final and win that. First and foremost success for this club is winning the league and then everything else comes after that, that's what we'll go after we’ve won the league. If we can push it as close as we can we'll do that and then, of course, getting a cup would be what we're trying to do. 

The manager has brought in two midfielders, do you welcome competition? 

Of course, it does. Anything that makes this club better to win trophies, bring it on 100 per cent. Anything that comes in to help us to win trophies bring, bring them in 100 per cent and if that drives me on great and if that makes me a better player, great. But I just want to win trophies with this football club. Whatever that looks like, I’m all for it. 

The manager spoke to you as a group on the pitch after the game, what was the message? 

It was just about sticking together. If we're going to get through a result like the weekend, they can't be turning on each other. Of course, we need the fans with us as well. We can't all be turning on each other, so it’s just about sticking together. The fans as well included in that, let’s all stick together and go on a good run now. What that looks like, we'll try and put that into place and get a few wins back on the board. We've all just got to stick together. We're all massively disappointed and it showed the last couple of days. We've spoken and we just want to put it right. 

How do you lift the mood? 

Yeah, it's just natural human instinct. When you lose a game you're obviously low. It has been, I’m not going to lie but now we're focusing on the game on the weekend. It’s just about getting on the training pitch and trying to implement where we thought we went wrong at the weekend and getting that right going forward. 

Do you and the squad believe that you are as good as Celtic and if so what gives you that feeling? 

As I said before, I don't think the gap is massive as what one game gets portrayed. All right, they’re a few points ahead of us in the league but we’ve shown we're a really good team as well. At the minute they are a few points ahead of us, but we don't think it's massive. We've spoken internally and we’ve spoken about where we thought we went wrong. That was on us not them being 100 per cent better than us. I just thought we weren’t ourselves and we didn't get it right. So that's on us, not the gap. 

How do you deal with variations in form and how do you personally deal with bringing the levels back up to what you showed last year? 

It's just about staying focused, not getting carried away when you're playing well and not getting too low when you're not playing so well. It's just about working hard on the training pitch, pushing each other and just trying to stay positive really. It is hard, of course, when you lose a game of football to stay positive, positive, positive, all time. It’s impossible, of course, it is. But just getting back on the training pitch and just working as hard as you can, it's the only way to do it.