No ‘major gulf’ in class between Rangers and Celtic despite defeat, says Mark Warburton

Rangers manager Mark Warburton (SNS Group / Rob Casey)

MARK WARBURTON last night insisted there is no gulf in class between Rangers and Celtic, despite seeing his side crash 5-1 to their Old Firm rivals.

Gers boss Warburton watched in horror as his side were torn apart by Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys, who moved four points clear of the Ibrox men in the league as a result.

But the Englishman claimed Philippe Senderos’ second-half sending-off allowed Celtic to put a gloss on the scoreline – and insisted he wouldn’t swap a single Gers player for an equivalent from Parkhead.

“My job is to say who would I take from their squad and swap, and I don’t see a major gulf,” said Warburton.

“We just got beat 5-1 so I’m not going to sit here like an idiot. Today they have the bragging rights, absolutely, and deserved to win.

“But there’s no major gulf. We just have to work harder. When you have adversity, work harder.”

Rangers' Philippe Senderos (right) is shown a red card (SNS Group / Sammy Turner) — Rangers’ Philippe Senderos (right) is shown a red card (SNS Group / Sammy Turner)

Rangers were forced to work overtime after Senderos was shown a second yellow card for a crazy handball with 15 minutes to go.

Warburton admitted that was the correct decision by ref Willie Collum. Yet, even after watching his side ship two more goals in the aftermath, he refused to entertain any notion the resultant defeat was a harbinger of things to come.

“It’s game five of a long season,” he insisted. “We are much better than we showed today. When we did have good spells – 20 minutes first-half, 15 minutes second-half – we were fine.

“But good players make good decisions and too many times today we made poor decisions in possession and gave the ball away from commanding areas.

“It’s about being brave and making those good decisions. That differentiates players. But we’ll be better for today. We have to be.”

Asked whether he would have expected his side to take more from their first five fixtures, he said: “Yes, obviously. There were 15 points up for grabs and we’ve got eight.

“Obviously, we’d like to have 12 or 13. But the fact of the matter is we are still gelling. Wee are five games in. Judge us in May.”

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