Only ourselves to blame says Celtic boss

The Hoops manager was still disappointed at the way his team failed to build on a great first half in the Boxing Day showdown.

“We can’t blame the referee, bad luck or anything else. It was own fault we lost the cup final,” said Ciaran.

“Everything was going well after the first 45 minutes. We dominated the tie and really should have been more than one goal up at the break.

“I knew Loughgall would come at us strong in the second half and we talked about that at the break. However, it was very disappointing to see the way we failed mentally as the game unfolded. I am taking nothing away from Loughall, they deserved it over the 90 minutes.

“However it shows me that we do not have that mental toughness required to go on and win things. If we go on and get promotion then this wake up call will be a good thing. We allowed that to cost us last year in the league so we must get it right from here on in.”

There was another cost to the cup final defeat with Daniel Ryan taken to hospital to have 14 stitches inserted above the knee.

“Daniel will be out for perhaps three weeks and that means most likely he will miss the Irish Cup tie against Larne which is a blow,” added the Celtic manager.

“We face Bangor Amateurs in the Intermediate Cup on Saturday and I’ll freshen things up a bit as some of the fringe players deserve a chance.”