Walter Smith was unhappy with the nature of how three of his Rangers players were sent off in last night's Old Firm derby loss to Celtic. Smith saw forward Steven Whittaker, defender Madjid Bougherra and firebrand striker El-Hadji Diouf all receive two yellow cards in a heated contest at Celtic Park, which 'Gers lost 1-0, and the manager was fuming with the pettiness of the decisions after proceedings.

"With Steven Whittaker, I wouldn't have argued with the second yellow card but the first one, I felt he was fouled prior to the challenge, so therefore it was harsh," he told Sky Sports.

"Madjid Bougherra's one, he quite clearly wins the ball. I think that one was a complete over-reaction from the referee in the circumstances.

"As far as the last one is concerned, I don't know what happened. That was after the game was finished."

Rangers were bereft of ideas when Whittaker was forced from the pitch in the 36th minute and managed just one shot on goal as they crashed out of the Scottish Cup with their third loss to their Glasgow rivals so far this season but Smith felt the performance was a positive despite their shortcomings.

"We never really got going in terms of our overall possession and threat but looked as though we weren't going to lose goals in the manner in which we did a couple of weeks ago," he added.

"Overall, we turned in a better performance than we did recently."