ALFREDO MORELOS tried, tried and tried again. On nine occasions, each effort suffered the same fate as the goal and the trophy that he and Rangers were so desperate for eluded them at Hampden.

Time after time he was denied by Fraser Forster as a variety of efforts from all angles were beaten away by the Celtic keeper. The clearest, of course, came from 12 yards as his penalty was saved and, at that moment, Rangers’ chances of Betfred Cup glory seemed to end.

There were positives to take from the performance for boss Steven Gerrard but only regrets and huge frustrations to be found in the final result as Rangers didn’t get what they deserved but Celtic landed the first silverware of the season.

Morelos will carry his share of the blame and the burden, but the striker cannot be faulted for a lack of effort or be accused of letting the occasion and his misses get the better of him.

And former Ibrox striker Billy Dodds believes his ability to keep coming back, to keep putting himself in those positions, will stand the Colombian in good stead as he looks to recover from a nightmare afternoon at Hampden.

“It’ll be tough for him,” he said. “Gerrard has got a big job to do to get into his head mentally. You must admire about Morelos is that he keeps going back for more, constantly.

“Who is the best player between Edouard and Morelos? Morelos is the best goalscorer but Edouard is probably a more intelligent player who’ll get you a few goals with more cultured finishes, but Morelos is a more natural finisher.

“He has this stigma and until he gets that goal against Celtic it will play on his mind. You could see it from his first miss.

“He was trying harder and harder after that and then he missed the penalty and yet he still kept putting himself back in there, rolling Hayes to get that shot in injury time.

“If he doesn’t do that and goes into a shell this goal against Celtic will not come. This year, we’ve spoken about the temperament of Morelos and it has got a lot better and it has helped his game.

“They said he didn’t score in bigger games, but that has happened in Europe. But he has this stigma just now with Celtic.

“He has to keep going, getting himself in those positions, he might have to miss a few more but if he keeps getting into those positions he will score against Celtic. But you’ve got to admit he had a nightmare in the final.”

The emotion was clear to see at the final whistle as the reality of their failure hit some of Gerrard’s players hard. As Celtic celebrated, Rangers shed tears for a very different reason.

The Hampden heartache cannot be allowed to linger, though, or Rangers risk seeing a huge run of fixtures quickly run away from them.

The visit of Young Boys on Thursday is an opportunity for a positive result to be earned and a goal to be achieved and Gerrard has to raise the spirits of his squad for the Europa League decider.

Dodds said: “He has a big job as a manager. The Rangers players will be so down but his job is to ensure his players take the positives from their performance in the final. That’s the way it has to be.

“It’s ‘Yeah we know we missed chances and we were unlucky, but let’s go with the positives, we dominated Celtic. Morelos, you keep doing what you’re doing and your goal will come and I’ll back you all the way.’

“He has to do his job as a manager and go with the positives. It’s easier said than done because he has to get into the heads of Morelos and the rest of the players that they’re moving on from this.

“He’ll stress things will change if they keep playing like that and it’s a hard job. Gerrard got through to him about his temperament so he can get through it about his goalscoring now.

“He’s got one piece of the jigsaw left to find Morelos now, hasn’t he? It’s to score against Celtic, everything else has happened for him this year.”

The post-mortem after any Old Firm defeat is always wide-ranging and reactionary as every aspect of the game is analysed and dissected whilst emotions run high.

There were few faults with the way that Rangers set up and performed on Sunday and a lack of character is not one of the criticisms that can be thrown at Gerrard’s players.

Dodds said: “You are not a mentally weak team if you start like that and piledrive Celtic. A mentally weak team wouldn’t get involved in the game.

“A strong-minded team says, ‘There’s our structure, our shape, our personnel and formation’ and pushes it right down their throats and that’s what Rangers did, but they just had bad luck on the day.

“People will mention the mentality side because Celtic still got over the line and won it. It puts pressure on Rangers, but they’re going to have to live with it.”