John Souttar has vowed to bounce back from his Old Firm blunder and prove he can be a defensive mainstay for Rangers.
The summer signing’s derby debut last weekend turned sour after 73 minutes when his slack back pass was pounced on by Jota for Celtic’s clincher in the 3-2 defeat. Souttar held his hands up in the dressing room immediately after full-time. But the headstrong centre half - who has fought back from three Achilles ruptures in his career - insists his history of overcoming the odds will help him put the Parkhead slip behind him. The Scotland international is expected to start against St Mirren at Ibrox this afternoon with Connor Goldson again ruled out through injury.
And the 26-year-old is desperate to show his derby blunder is in the past. He said: “Going into the game I thought this was why I signed for Rangers, to play in these big games, Old Firm derbies and in Europe. It was brilliant to be involved in that atmosphere. As a team I thought we did well in parts of the game. But obviously two mistakes cost us.
“My mistake for the third goal was poor. It’s one of those things, everyone has them in football don’t they? A slack pass or something else going wrong. But it’s how you react. You can’t let it affect you as it’ll happen to everyone. You just need to bounce back and react well.
“I held my hands up and said it was my fault. It was pretty obvious to hold my hands up and say that as it was. I have to take it as that was my responsibility. I just need to react now and hopefully I’ll get the chance to do that.
“Every footballer goes through something similar, a mistake or an injury or anything. And it’s all about how you react in football isn’t it? How you move on from the bad moments. Anyone can go and play a good game. It’s easy. It’s the moments where you’ve made a mistake or something’s gone not quite right where you’re judged and people see how mentally strong you are. It’s up to me to react at the weekend and go and put in a good performance.”
Souttar’s move to Ibrox from Hearts last season has been far from plane sailing. His debut in the opening game of the season victory at Livingston saw him back on crutches after fracturing his ankle.
That saw him sidelined for the best part of eight months during which Gio van Bronckhorst was sacked and Michael Beale returned as manager. Souttar returned as a late substitute against Kilmarnock in March and a further three sub appearances came ahead of being thrown in for last Saturday’s showdown at Parkhead with just a day’s notice.
He said: “It’s been a tough time. The start to my Rangers career hasn’t been how I’d envisioned it when I signed. It’s just one of those things.
“I felt pain before and during the Livi game then got it scanned afterwards and discovered it was a stress fracture in the ankle. But I just had to do everything I could to get back, get myself in shape and back in the team.
“You just have to be mentally strong and focus on your end goal which is to come back as fresh as you can. I just had to focus on playing for Rangers which is what I signed to do. I just wanted to come back and be as good a player as I could possibly be. Because you’ve been there before you know what it’s like to come back.
“But I think it was more difficult this time as you’ve just signed for Rangers and want to impress and prove to yourself and everyone else that you’re good enough to be here.
“It was frustrating but now I’m back and I just want to do all that I can to stay in the team. This is my first real opportunity that I’ve had to be in the team. It’s up to me now to go and take it and go and impress.
“In the past with other injuries I would be straight back into the Hearts team. Being here it’s a bit different. There are people in front of me doing well. That gave me time to build up properly and now I’m back in and feeling really good physically.”
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