Derek McInnes left 'mortified' as rank rotten Rangers crash out of Europe after Conference League calamity

Derek McInnes admitted he was mortified by the gutless performance of his Rangers team after they were dumped out of Europe on penalties by FK Jablonec.

On a night of abject humiliation in the Czech Republic, Rangers saw their 1-0 lead from last week’s first leg in Glasgow wiped out as a second-half goal from Vakhtang Chanturishvili forced the Conference League play-off into extra-time.

But, to compound a miserable start to the season for the Ibrox club, Findlay Curtis and James Penrice missed from the spot in the shootout as McInnes’ men were knocked out.

It means Rangers will have no European football for the season ahead, the first time that has happened since the infamous defeat to Progres Niederkorn back in 2017.

The visitors were absolutely dreadful throughout the match, failing to create any clear chances of note, and the defeat will rank as one of the club’s most embarrassing results in European competition.

‘First of all, I’m embarrassed with the performance,’ said McInnes, who is now under huge pressure as a poor start to the season plumbed new depths.

‘I think the only people who represented the club well tonight were my staff, the support staff in the preparation. We do so much right here to get the players ready and in peak condition to go and perform.

‘And the supporters, who to a man were outstanding, getting behind the team despite watching what we all watched.

‘It wasn’t a good performance by any stretch of the imagination. Then you think you might just get through once it goes to penalties.

‘It shouldn’t have come down to two boys, James Penrice and Findlay Curtis, in tears for missing a penalty-kick. It shouldn’t have come down to that.

‘I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses whatsoever. It wasn’t good enough. Yes, there’s been a big turnover of players. Yes, we looked very inexperienced at times. But the responsibility is mine to make sure that we are better than what we served up tonight. And we were miles short, miles short.

‘The opposition were better than us in most aspects of the game if I’m honest, so we got what we deserved.’

‘If we’d won it on penalties, we’d have taken it, of course, because of how important that is. But that would have covered over the cracks, to be honest.

‘I’m mortified by the performance. I know you can lose games of football, but we should have enough in the building to take care of that tonight.

‘I just feel as though we’re elite in everything we do in terms of the preparation, yet the performance lacked everything, really, in terms of winning duels, winning second balls, looking after the ball, keeping things simple.

‘Our press wasn’t good enough. When the press was good and we went man for man, we weren’t strong enough in the challenges. We weren’t strong enough to win second balls. We didn’t win tackles. It just wasn’t anywhere near good enough.’

Rangers were without Nico Raskin after the Belgian midfielder was left behind in Glasgow due to transfer interest in recent days.

McInnes confirmed that no bids have yet been received but he conceded that the absence of Raskin was in no way an excuse for such a dismal performance.

With a trip to face Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Sunday now looking like a must-win, the under-fire manager made it clear that his players need to buck up their ideas.

‘There have been no offers for Nico,’ said McInnes. ‘It’s just been quite a few conversations. So I don’t know where that’s at.

‘That may well change. But I did think we lacked a bit of experience in the middle of the pitch at times.

‘I think any team would miss somebody like Nico, but I need to say that’s not the reason why we’ve lost tonight. We should still have enough in the building, as I said.

‘I’ll take responsibility for the result, but the responsibility is shared. The players have got to be better than that. It’s my job to help the players, but they’ve got to help themselves as well.

‘It’s such a low point. I’m gutted for the supporters because they’ve come here. We come over on a charter flight, we stay in a nice hotel, we get all the preparation, and they come here whatever way they can.

‘They don’t always need to see their team perform brilliantly, but they do deserve to see their team perform way better than that. For that, it’s not good enough.’