A season was summed up by 95 minutes of genuine frustration tinged with a feeling of inevitability. My positivity had again proved misplaced.
Rangers were the cause of their own downfall with another moment of calamity and in the other box were completely toothless.
In the end, we were left crossing to a forward line of Fashion Sakala, Ianis Hagi and Rabbi Matondo. A manager so desperateo to get something to stick, to find a random alchemy because he has so little to work with.
The reality is obvious; the good run of form was simply the manager getting the group to punch above their class, as my columns on here have feared. Sadly, it always felt like there was an inevitability about what would happen when they came up against real challenges. And so it's proved.
This squad is miles away from being good enough. It matched Celtic with a solid game plan but Rangers lack quality in abundance throughout the team. The squad is tired and bland.
Of course, I'm aware this is nothing new, there is little we saw today that taught us anything - it simply reinforces the fact that this squad needs a rebuild of epic portions.
Michael Beale has said after the game with St Mirren that the ‘majority of the team playing will be here next season’. The difficulty for the manager is the fans don’t want that which has led to criticism and worry that next year will be the same. There's a demand for ruthless change.
There is a feeling that Beale has at least shown promise in organisation. Every Old Firm has been close but he has also failed in the last three big matches against them and if he chooses to go with the same group then a familiar outcome will be inevitable.
READ MORE: Michael Beale admits Rangers need 'biggest rebuild' in years | Rangers Review
Rangers were largely the better side, they just don’t have anything to show for it because they are simply not good enough. Poor recruitment over several years has finally caught up with the club. The signs on that were clear last year, instead of acting, Ross Wilson and the recruitment team were allowed to waste millions on players who lack the ability to be Rangers stars and the majority we will now have to move on quickly.
That’s the frustration of the season and as the ball crashed off the post and rolled back to Sakala it was the League Cup Final all over again. That moment is Rangers in microcosm; almost good enough, almost a decent side, but in reality many aren’t anywhere near the levels we require.
We knew Rangers would get opportunities and the game went almost exactly how we all predicted. You'd have to be largely content with how they played up until the final third. When you miss open goals though, this is what will happen.
It’s difficult to summarise my thoughts without it coming across as being almost like this was inevitable, but the game felt like the culmination of everything this column has discussed throughout the last 12 months.
I’m probably guilty of being too positive about a group of players that are finished at the club. Today simply proved the time has come for change.
The manager told us after the match that there would be a rebuild the likes of Rangers haven’t seen in years. It’s needed.
I asked him what numbers we could expect, potentially a dozen in and a dozen out type of numbers and he intimated that would be the level of change. It simply has to be.
The pressure is on Beale to deliver a summer revolution - and not only deliver it but also get it right.
The only players truly safe are Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin, the rest are fighting to prove their time at Rangers isn’t over. The reality for so many of them is that it already is.
The season is finished and so should so many of these Rangers players' careers.
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