The Cappielow club went into the big TV clash in a rich vein of form, riding the crest of a wave that had seen them go seven matches unbeaten in all competitions.

That run included dumping Premiership strugglers Motherwell out of the League Cup with a convincing extra-time victory in midweek.

But Ton boss Duffy admitted his team seemed to lack the same belief on Sunday and appeared affected by Rangers’ reputation. Speaking exclusively to the Tele, he said: “I wouldn’t use the term ‘froze’ but I think we underperformed in certain areas today.

“A lot of that was to do with Rangers, don’t get me wrong. They denied us space, really pressed us quickly and we couldn’t get any rhythm in the game.

“Rangers don’t sit off you and let you try and find your way; they’re at you from the first minute to the last minute. Good teams do that: with and without the ball they are very good.

“Without the ball we tried as best we could to shut them down, deny space and work hard. But with the ball, I felt we could have taken a bit more care. There were half a dozen occasions in the game where we lacked a wee bit of belief on the ball and lost possession too readily.

“There was a need for a wee bit of authority, to believe ‘I’m good enough to take this ball’ and ‘Good enough to pass this ball’.

“We rushed things, hurried things and gave the ball away. It was a bit tentative, edgy, nervous or whatever, and I think that’s when the opposition’s reputation etc. can sometimes affect you. You think: ‘If I give this away or make a mistake here, we could get punished’, and because of that level you’re playing at you tighten up a wee bit.

“So from that point of view, I felt we could have passed the ball a bit better and had more authority about us. I think Rangers were very good. Their movement, their imagination, their interchanging is top class at this level and very difficult to play against.

“But we’ve got our own jobs to do and I was a wee bit disappointed, not overly but a wee bit, in terms of some of the things we could have done better.

“I felt we could have linked up the play better. We were on our heels a wee bit at times, waiting, whereas Rangers were on the front foot.

“[In previous matches] we’ve been really sharp and at teams, up against them, but I think there were one or two who looked a wee bit leggy in the first 20 minutes, and by that time Rangers had control.

“After 20 minutes we kind of settled in and looked as though we got a wee bit of legs, but before then we lacked a wee spark.

“I don’t think we were at our best. If you’re at your best and Rangers are at their best, you tend to grudgingly accept it. You live with that. But I think when you’ve not played at your best you’re a wee bit frustrated, because I felt we were a wee bit off the pace today.

“Over the piece, I’ve no complaint about the players’ effort and work ethic. I don’t think anybody can complain we didn’t put a shift in, but Rangers were very good and professional. They’ve been excellent, and if they happen to beat Falkirk next week then they’ve went through the first quarter with maximum points. So you can’t get too disillusioned, but nevertheless you can’t just accept it and go: ‘Well that’s okay, it was Rangers.’ “It’s not in my nature to do that so I’m a wee bit annoyed and wee bit frustrated because I felt we could have played better.” When asked if that was a feeling his players shared, Duffy replied: “I hope so. I hope that they don’t just write it off and dismiss the Rangers games, because then you’re beaten before the game starts.

“If you go into it thinking ‘it’s Rangers so it doesn’t matter if we lose this’, then you’re already beaten and you’d be as well not turning up.” Duffy, though, was pleased by the fact his team managed to get at Rangers at certain times over the 90 minutes, creating a handful of chances to score.

He added: “We didn’t camp on the 18-yard line, that’s something we didn’t do, so we did try to impress upon the game rather than it just being wave after wave of Rangers attack.

“And we could have capitalised at a couple of breaks. Denny [Johnstone] has put a great ball in for Alex [Samuel], and another one where he went through and Lee Wallace has put in a great tackle. There was a three versus one situation on the break which we didn’t do well enough with in the second half, and we had the double chance where the goalkeeper’s made a couple of saves.

“Ross Forbes’ free-kick wasn’t too far away in the first half. So we hit a few efforts and gave them one or two problems.

“Bobby [Barr] got in behind a few times, and there was one he tried to reverse to Alex but I don’t know why. [He should have] just hit it because he was only 10 or 12 yards out.

“And again that was maybe that [lack of] belief I spoke about. That confidence: ‘I’m going to score here’ - and you need that against good teams.”