Rangers manager Philippe Clement was left dismayed after his team's goal against Celtic in the Scottish Cup final was controversially chalked off on Saturday afternoon. He argued that Dujon Sterling had been subjected to a far more blatant foul earlier in the match that went unpunished.
Clement expressed his exasperation with referee Nick Walsh following the narrow 1-0 defeat. Adam Idah's 90th-minute goal at Hampden Park dashed Rangers' hopes of glory, leaving them with only the League Cup as silverware this season compared to Celtic's Premiership title and Scottish Cup.
The disallowed second-half goal by Abdallah Sima, which was overturned after VAR intervention for an alleged push on Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart, particularly irked the Rangers boss.
Despite the setback, Clement hailed the match as Rangers' finest derby showing of the campaign and felt victory was within their grasp.
However, he couldn't shake off his irritation over the disallowed goal, especially when comparing it to a first-half shove from Liam Scales on Sterling that he deemed much more egregious yet which was ignored by the officials.
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Speaking to Rangers TV, Clement lamented: "By far our best Old Firm this season. The better team, getting six shots on goal, they got two shots on goal. You feel you are so close to winning, then the disallowed goal - really, really big decision from the referee.
"If you compare with other decisions like the push on Dujon Sterling in the first half, which was 10 times more than that, but no foul. So disappointed about that. But I'm most disappointed for the fans, we wanted to give them that."
Clement added in his post-match press conference: "Even people of Celtic were saying that we were the better team today. In that way, it's mixed feelings. You're disappointed because you do everything to win and everybody worked really hard for that the last weeks and months.
"But I'm also proud of what my team showed today. Do we need to take steps? Yes. We get two shots on target today, we get a goal. We created six shots ourselves. We need to score in that moment.
"Then if you have the scenario also that you score goals and they are disallowed in that way, that's also in that moment a disappointment if I compare with the push Scales gives to Dujon Sterling in the first half.
"I didn't see the situation back but it's a much bigger push than what happened with Joe Hart. If I see also how older Celtic defenders are grabbing my players and having their arms around their neck and around their waist, it's a really big call to make to disallow that goal."