On the Match

“Firstly, we came to win.

“We felt in the early part of the game we weren’t doing enough to win and were a bit safe and tame with our work.

“It’s maybe understandable with so many young ones in such a big game, but I actually felt the ten minutes or so prior to the sending off we were finding our feet in getting into the game.

“We weathered the storm from Celtic and the emphasis at half-time was going to be that we’d worked hard to get here, and we needed to give a bit more and be a bit braver in possession.

“The game totally changed on the sending off.

“I thought it extremely harsh.

“I thought the first yellow card – one of the officials said it was stopping a promising attack. Jonny’s (Hayes) kicked the ball out the pitch.

“It is a foul and I’m not denying that, but I didn’t think it was a yellow card offence. It’s Dom’s first foul of the game. The second one is difficult as we’ve all played the game. The ball bounces and it’s ended up with young Ryan (Christie) having a bad injury.

“I haven’t seen it again, but I don’t think there’s an elbow or a flailing arm and it was totally accidental.

“I need to remind people of when Boyata took Gary Mackay-Steven out in the cup final not so long ago.

“That was deemed for me a reckless challenge. It was late, Gary ends up in hospital and it wasn’t a yellow card or penalty kick.

“It was mistimed and accidental.

WBut in that same six minutes after Gary was getting treated we lost a goal and we lost a goal in those added minutes. It was a sore one for us. We managed to win at Ibrox when we went down to ten men but not today.

“The goal was a blow for us and it was a brilliant finish from Forrest.

“We set the players up in the second half to stay in the game, defend crosses and we should defend the second goal better before the penalty. We should deal with the first cross a lot better than we did. All we were hanging onto there was maybe a set piece or counter attack and we’d maybe get one or two chances in the second half.

“It became even worse when Lewis got second half.

“That was a red card and he needs to learn from his frustrations getting the better of him.

“It was a frustrating day for all of us. I’ve been sent off for being frustrated and for that I apologised and will take my punishment, as will young Lewis. We’ll learn from it together.

“It was a frustrating day for me and the team and it’s something we need to learn from. We came here hoping it would go our way in all aspects in trying to get to the cup final. We’ve beaten some decent teams to get to this stage and I’m disappointed for my players and everybody at my club that we’ve not managed to make that next step.

“We were playing the best team in the country so we wanted to treat this game like a final. It was just not to be.

“Tony was sent off for acting in an irresponsible manner. I’ve heard Doc and it’s nothing more than you’d hear on a Saturday. It was disappointing and I think it was harsh on him.

“Four sending offs isn’t pretty and it’s a bad day.

“If we could beat Celtic then we knew we’d have a fantastic opportunity, but It was just not to be.”

On the Sectarian Abuse

“I let it go the first time and I shouldn’t react.

“I’ll take my punishment and I was wrong to do so and I should be better than that.

“It will be interesting to see if everybody gets punished for the incident.

“I’ve heard that song aimed at me 100 times and I never reacted to it so the frustration of the game has maybe played a part in that.

“The fourth official deemed my reaction to be a red card offence.

“The role of the fourth official sometimes is to maybe give you a warning. It was maybe a chance for him to let Craig Thomson know exactly what I reacted to. Whether he knew I don’t know, but it fell on deaf ears.

“I think it’s up to everybody else to say their bit.

“I think it will be in the delegates report, which is pleasing and refreshing because it’s not always in a delegates report when you hear sectarian singing.

“It certainly wasn’t the report last time when it happened in the cup final here, but that’s not my fight.

“That’s for others to condemn, but for my small part in that I take responsibility for my own actions.

“I didn’t react the first time, but I did react the second time and if that’s deemed a red card offence then I’ll take my punishment.”