Mark Selby made the first maximum break in a World Snooker Championship final as he reeled off the final three frames of an exhilarating opening day to trail Belgium’s Luca Brecel 9-8 overnight at the Crucible.

Forty years after Cliff Thorburn compiled the first 147 in the tournament, four-time champion Selby polished off the 15th to add his name to the list of history-makers at the famous venue.

Selby’s maximum earned him a share of the £40,000 tournament highest break prize with Kyren Wilson, who also made a 147 in his first-round win over Ryan Day.

His achievement capped an absorbing first two sessions in which Brecel threatened to pot his way into a significant lead only for the 39-year-old to show all of his renowned tenacity to drag himself back into contention ahead of Monday’s conclusion.

Twice previously in finals, against Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, Selby has trailed heavily only to roar back and clinch victory and he is now a heavy favourite to finish the job against Brecel, who before this year had not won a match in five visits to the Crucible.

Having carved a reputation as a comeback king after his wins over O’Sullivan and Si Jiahui, the Belgian found himself in uncharted territory as a front-runner after blazing a trail with some epic long pots to take the first session 6-2.

Breaks of 77 and 90 helped him punish Selby, who uncharacteristically missed an easy brown and two blacks off their spots and was seemingly suffering after his early-hours semi-final win over Mark Allen the previous night.

In a thrilling start to the evening session, Selby summoned a 134 total clearance only for Brecel to respond with a high-octane 99, including a series of trick-shots on the colours, to immediately restore his four-frame advantage.

But Brecel’s potting prowess was matched by a growing tendency to miss easy balls, and after potting a series of impressive long shots in the next he missed a comparatively easy red, allowing Selby to post a break of 96 to narrow the deficit to 7-4.

Another missed opportunity enabled Selby to recover Brecel’s 42-point head-start and win frame 12, but the Belgian responded well with breaks of 72 and 67 after the mid-session interval to pull 9-5 in front.

It was classic Selby territory, however, and he punished a careless Brecel split with a break of 61 before summoning his historic maximum, completed with the minimum of fuss after plucking the final problematic red away from the side cushion.

Referee Brendan Moore, officiating in his third and last Crucible final before retirement, was the first to congratulate Selby, who was also embraced warmly by a smiling Brecel.

The Belgian looked set to extend his overnight advantage when he went 48 points clear in the final frame of the evening but Selby typically managed to refocus and take the frame to leave a thrilling 2023 final on a knife-edge.

Dave Chisnall’s hot run of form on the European Tour continued as he won the Dutch Darts Championship in Leeuwarden.

Chisnall beat Luke Humphries 8-5 in Sunday night’s final to claim his second title of the year following his success in Germany in February.

The 39-year-old outplayed Humphries, who won four titles on last year’s European Tour, in the showpiece, peppering seven 180s and averaging 99.89.

He had to do it the hard way as well as he overcame home favourite Michael van Gerwen in a dramatic semi-final.

Chisnall, having beaten up-and-coming star Josh Rock and two-time world champion Peter Wright earlier in the day, disappointed a partisan crowd after sealing a final-set decider by taking out his seventh match dart – finishing in the ‘madhouse’ double one – with Van Gerwen missing three of his own.

Wright had earlier won a thrilling contest with defending champion Michael Smith, where the pair renewed their rivalry from Thursday night’s feisty Premier League match in Leeds.

Jack Dempsey has hailed head coach Franco Smith’s impact on Glasgow after the Warriors reached their first European final.

With the season well and truly at its business-end, Glasgow are also chasing United Rugby Championship honours and face a play-off clash against Munster at Scotstoun next Saturday.

And their trophy double bid underlines the effect South African Smith has had during his first season in charge.

“Since day one when Franco came in, there has been something kind of growing,” Glasgow and Scotland back-row forward Dempsey said.

“And whether you are an amateur player or a professional player or whatever it is, that is something which hits you.

“Franco has got plaudits for various things, but the biggest thing was building that depth so that there were opportunities for guys like Matt Fagerson and myself to be managed correctly.

“There are no real excuses. We are just rolling now and picking ourselves up week to week.

“Franco is smart around the training loads as well, and he knows that going into these big games that we are not going to get heaps fitter at this stage of the season by working really hard.

“It is too late for that. At the end of the season, you are either fit or you’re not, so he is managing us well.”

Glasgow have emulated Edinburgh eight years ago in booking a Challenge Cup final place – the Warriors will head to Dublin on May 19 – but they were pushed all the way by the Scarlets in Llanelli.

The home side, roared on by a 13,000 crowd – their biggest home attendance since they knocked La Rochelle out of the Champions Cup in 2018 – led 14-7 at half-time.

Bur Glasgow dug deep, scoring 28 points after the break and claiming a 35-17 victory as centre Stafford McDowall scored two tries, while scrum-half George Horne, flanker Rory Darge and replacement hooker Johnny Matthews also touched down.

Dempsey added: “There have been ups and downs, but this is something I think we deserve because of the way everyone has worked for each other.

“To get that result, in a pretty hostile environment, it just adds another layer to the story.

“That’s what the whole point is of getting experience on big stages – you never know what is going to be thrown at you – and I think the second half showed what we are made of.

“We could easily have folded, gone into our shell and blamed it on a learning experience and had a look to next year, but we dug deep and went back to what makes us a great team, and we pulled it out in the end.

“We have been comfortable the last three or four weeks when we’ve had all home games, so the curve ball this week was the hostile environment when you can’t hear your own lineout calls, for example, and it makes it challenging in other ways.

“You take confidence in the fact that you haven’t lost in a while, but I think the game was a bit of a shock to the system and a wake-up call for the boys to see that in big moments this is what it takes.

“We saw that it can slip through your fingers when we went 14-7 down, and there is a price to pay if you are not switched on.”

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz made light work of Grigor Dimitrov to cruise into the last 16 of the Madrid Open with a straight-sets win on Sunday.

The Spaniard thrilled the home crowd at Caja Magica to reach the fourth round in style with a 6-2 7-5 victory.

Dimitrov lost his serve twice in a ruthless first-set rout and could not mount a comeback despite a spirited attempted recovery against the world number two.

Alcaraz's victory sets up a fascinating fourth-round clash with Alexander Zverev in a repeat of last year's final.

Zverev himself secured fast passage from the third round with a 6-1 6-0 win over Hugo Grenier.

Alcaraz and Zverev are joined in the last 16 by Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov after their respective victories against Yoshihito Nishioka and Roberto Bautista Agut.

There is no place for 12th seed Hubert Hurkacz, however, after he fell to a 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 loss against Borna Coric.

World number one Iga Swiatek cruised into the last 16 of the Madrid Open with a straight-sets victory over Bernarda Pera on Sunday.

The three-time grand slam winner conceded the first break of the match three games in, but she responded brilliantly to that setback to wrap up a 6-3 6-2 win within 76 minutes.

Swiatek did not face a second break point in the match as she rediscovered her composure, continuing her French Open preparations as a barrage of big winners proved too much for Pera.

Speaking on court after her win, Swiatek said: "I wouldn't say it was easy. Every match is tricky here. 

"I'm happy that I'm getting into my rhythm. Playing against a lefty is never easy, but I'm pretty happy with that. I was disciplined and focused."

It was a day of few shocks in the Spanish capital, as third seed Jessica Pegula saw off a spirited challenge from Marie Bouzkova to emerge with a 6-4 7-6 (7-2) win.

Pegula will face Italy's Martina Trevisan for a quarter-final spot after she claimed a straight-sets win over another American player in Alycia Parks.

Meanwhile, Russian duo Veronika Kudermetova and Daria Kasatkina will meet in the next round after victories against Anastasia Potapova and Lesia Tsurenko respectively. 

Harry Kane says Tottenham are a team of “moments” but are not playing as a team after a 4-3 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield.

Seven days on from their 6-1 defeat at Newcastle, where they were 5-0 down after 20 minutes, a repeat looked on the cards as they fell 3-0 behind with only 15 minutes on the clock.

But Kane’s 208th Premier League goal, which puts him joint-second on the all-time list with Wayne Rooney, started the unlikeliest of comebacks which was completed by Richarlison in stoppage time.

However, Diogo Jota scored for Liverpool just 99 seconds later to condemn Spurs to another loss, ending any realistic hope of qualifying for next season’s Champions League, with the Europa League far from certain.

Kane said on Sky Sports: “The table doesn’t lie, where we are doesn’t lie, we have got some fantastic players, we have some fantastic moments, but overall as a team we are not playing well collectively.

“We need to find a way to get through moments when things don’t go our way, we need to find a way of starting games away from home where we are not under the cosh straight away.

“We deserve to be where we are, that is what the league table is there for, we have four games, this one is going to be hard to take but we have a week until the next game, we have to look at it back and try and move on.”

Kane, whose future is certain to come under scrutiny following Spurs’ shambolic end to the season, says actions speak louder than words in terms of how they go about putting an end to their dismal start to games.

“Dreadful start in the first 20 minutes, not the first time it’s happened this season, so we need to start understanding moments better, start understanding big games better,” he said.

“You come away to Anfield, just like you go away to St James’ Park, and the same thing happened.

“Twenty minutes is one game and then the 70-plus five minutes we had chances, they had a lot of the ball but the majority of the chances came to us, we hit the post, and over that period we fully deserved to get back in the game.

“It would have been a really great comeback, but the final 10 seconds it is hard to put into words how that happened and why it happened but we have to try and move on from it.

“Over the course of the season we have shown we can come back in games and to do it here in Anfield shows what we are capable of. But to have the starts we have had, it is hard to put into words, it is hard to talk about.

“There are so many words you can use, the bottom line is you have to go out and prove that to be the case.

“We have conceded a goal in pretty much the first minute in the last three games we have played, it is down to us to go away and find a reason why and find out how we can improve the situation.”

Another pulsating weekend of action in the Premier League saw some of the main issues take more clarity as the season draws to a close.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at the key issues in the games from Saturday and Sunday.

Erling Haaland scored his 50th goal of the season as Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League table for the first time in 10 weeks with a 2-1 win at Fulham. The Norwegian star equalled Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole’s record for the most league goals in a season as his early penalty at Craven Cottage was his 34th of a brilliant campaign with more surely to follow. Carlos Vinicius had levelled for Fulham before Julian Alvarez’s goal earned an eighth successive win for City, which saw them go above Arsenal and to the top of the table. It feels slightly ominous and, even though the Gunners can reclaim their place at the summit on Tuesday, few would back against City winning the title from here.

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It was a big afternoon for Newcastle and Manchester United in their quest to secure Champions League football as both recorded important wins. Newcastle’s brilliant campaign shows absolutely no sign of hitting the rocks as they produced a comeback 3-1 victory over Southampton. It was their eighth win in nine games since their Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester United, but they could now finish above Erik ten Hag’s side in the table. United, who are battling a gruelling schedule, overcame in-form Aston Villa to almost certainly book Champions League football next season.

Despite his Tottenham team-mates again collapsing around him, Harry Kane continues on a one-man mission to break Alan Shearer’s Premier League scoring record. His goal for Spurs against Liverpool at Anfield was his 208th league strike, taking him joint second in the all-time list with Wayne Rooney. Kane can be forgiven for wondering whether he really wants to go for Shearer’s record in a Tottenham shirt after another gutless opening to a game. A week after Spurs found themselves 5-0 down after 20 minutes at Newcastle, they were at it again, this time conceding three in the first 15 minutes in an embarrassing showing. They looked like they had put that right with Kane’s goal starting a remarkable comeback that saw Richarlison level in stoppage time. However, seconds after the restart, Diogo Jota made it 4-3 and strengthened Liverpool’s Europa League hopes.

After a poor defeat at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, it would have been easy to think that Brighton might run out of steam in their quest for a first European qualification. But they showed they are very much still in the race after posting their biggest Premier League win, thumping Wolves 6-0. Doubles from Deniz Undav, Pascal Gross and Danny Welbeck helped the rampant Seagulls put them firmly in the race for Europa League qualification and on this evidence – with games in hand – they could be favourites to finish in fifth position. Brentford could also consider themselves in the mix after they followed up their midweek win at Chelsea with a late turnaround victory over Nottingham Forest.

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For the first 50 minutes of their visit to Newcastle, things were looking good as Southampton led and were just three points off safety in the live table. But a second-half capitulation now leaves Saints staring relegation in the face as they are six points adrift with four games to play. The next one is against Forest and defeat could be the final nail in the coffin. It was a damaging weekend for Leeds, who lost 4-1 to Bournemouth and, with tough fixtures between now and the end of the season, look favourites to return to the Championship. Forest’s late defeat at Brentford keeps them firmly in the mix while there is a huge game between Leicester and Everton on Monday.

Harry Kane moved joint-second in the all-time Premier League scoring chart with a goal in Tottenham’s defeat at Liverpool.

Having moved alongside Wayne Rooney on 208, Kane has only record scorer Alan Shearer ahead of him in the years since the top flight’s rebranding.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how he compares.

As with his recently-acquired England scoring record, Kane has hauled in Rooney’s total in far fewer games than it took the former Manchester United and Everton forward.

Rooney scored 208 goals in 491 appearances, including 183 in 393 for United – at the time a record for one club, since beaten by Sergio Aguero’s 184 for Manchester City and then Kane’s Spurs tally.

Kane has played only 315 games since his debut in 2012, all for Spurs except for three scoreless early appearances on loan at Norwich.

Rooney, of course, won five league titles with United, an achievement Kane has not been able to match – though he does have three Golden Boot awards, in 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2020-21. Kane has won seven player of the month awards to Rooney’s five, but Rooney was the Premier League player of the season for 2009-10.

Kane will need at least two more fit and prolific Premier League seasons to overtake Shearer, but is on course to do so given his impressive scoring rate.

Shearer’s 260 goals came in 441 appearances for Blackburn and Newcastle, a ratio of 0.59 goals per game.

Kane has a superior scoring rate of 0.66 per game, meaning he is on track to match Shearer’s record in his 395th game – either late in 2024-25 or early in the following campaign.

Shearer insists he is “cool with” Kane eventually breaking his record, telling the Premier League website in February when Kane reached 200 goals: “I know how much he wants it – he’s told me – which is fine, because I was exactly the same.

“If he stays fit and stays in this country then he’ll do it. It’s just a matter of when.”

Shearer also won three Golden Boots, in consecutive seasons from 1994-95. That year he also won the league title, with Blackburn, and the player of the season award, while he was named player of the month on four occasions in his career.

Kane holds the accolade of scoring against all 32 opponents he has faced in his Premier League career.

Shearer and Rooney scored against more opponents but also faced more – Shearer played against 39 teams and scored against all but Watford and Birmingham, in two and five appearances respectively, while Rooney netted against 36 of 40 opponents.

He did not score in six games against United – but did so five times in 18 games for them against Everton – with Derby, Blackpool and Huddersfield keeping him at bay in two games each.

Kane’s best tally against one opponent is 18 in 16 games against Leicester, with 15 in 16 against Everton and 14 in 17 north London derbies against Arsenal. He has double figures also against Southampton, West Ham and Crystal Palace.

Rooney scored 15 against Newcastle and hit double figures against seven different opponents. Shearer did so against 12 teams, including 20 in 19 games against Leeds.

Kane has scored in almost half of his Premier League appearances – 153, already only six fewer than Rooney. His total includes a four-goal haul against Leicester in 2017, seven other hat-tricks and 38 doubles.

Shearer’s 11 hat-tricks included five goals in Newcastle’s 8-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in 1999. He added 46 doubles, scoring in 190 of his 441 games. Rooney scored 34 doubles and seven hat-tricks, including all four goals in Manchester United’s 4-0 win over Hull in 2010.

Liverpool assumed the role of chief Champions League football challengers as they moved into fifth place after a frankly bizarre late 4-3 win over Tottenham.

A week after conceding five in the opening 21 minutes at Newcastle, history started to repeat itself after another shambolic opening to a game from Spurs, who were 3-0 down inside 15 minutes courtesy of goals from Curtis Jones, Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah.

That the visitors got back on level terms through Harry Kane – equalling Wayne Rooney’s 208 Premier League total – Son Heung-min and Richarlison, in added time, said as much about the home side’s sloppiness when cruising as it did Tottenham’s powers of recovery which had earned them a come-from-behind draw against Manchester United on Thursday.

However, there was one final twist as straight from the kick-off following Richarlison’s equaliser, Diogo Jota scored his fifth goal in four appearances to snatch victory and stay in the race – albeit outsiders – for the top four, seven points behind Manchester United having played one match more.

Rangers manager Michael Beale promised the biggest squad rebuild for years after another defeat by Celtic consigned them to a barren season.

Jota’s goal three minutes before half-time proved enough for Celtic to seal a Scottish Cup final clash against Inverness as they close in on the treble.

Rangers have gone six games without victory against their city rivals and Celtic have the chance to wrap up the title before they visit Ibrox on May 13.

Beale said: “Listen, I think it will be the biggest rebuild this club has seen in a number of years.

“You have to be respectful, you are coming in in November and know changes will be made.

“Every time you come to a press conference people ask you about it. I have got a group of players that I need to manage and keep moving forward and motivate for the games I have been here. It’s obvious I am not going to come out and condemn people and send people away.

“But I think it’s also obvious that we are getting to the summer and there’s going to be some change.

“If you haven’t heard any news now around certain players it would be amiss not to keep asking the same questions, because if you don’t hear anything and contracts are running out it probably gives you a good indication there’s change in the air.”

When asked whether that was the last appearance for Rangers at Hampden for Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos, whose contracts expire at the end of the season, Beale said: “Possibly, yes.”

He added: “We have been in need of the summer for a while to be honest but certainly after this outcome, I think it’s fair to say we need some new faces, some renewed energy.”

The first half was a tight affair with few clear-cut chances until Rangers collectively stopped playing in the expectation that stand-in referee Don Robertson, who replaced the injured Willie Collum late on, would blow for a Celtic free-kick.

Nicolas Raskin stood back after a body-check on Matt O’Riley but Robertson played on, Daizen Maeda nipped in front of the equally static Borna Barisic and whipped in a cross to allow Jota to head home after he had sneaked in behind James Tavernier.

Beale said: “Fine margins will generally decide big games and we have made an error again in a moment and conceded a goal and the game has been very harsh on us.

“I thought second half we took the game to Celtic, we had big moments and we haven’t executed.

“In big games you can’t have the amount of play that we had and the opportunities we had and make a mistake and get away with it.

“We are missing big chances, similar to the (Viaplay) Cup final here.”

When pressed on the circumstances behind the goal, Beale said: “It’s happened in a lot of big games this year. No-one is meaning to make mistakes but in the big moments we have done.

“I don’t know (why). We throw big words out like character and mentality… We have switched off, two or three players have switched off. They know, they are in there kicking themselves. It’s a big moment in their careers, it’s a costly moment for all of us, as a football club.

“No-one went out there to switch off. It was clear two or three did, and they score. Fair play to them, in that moment they are alive and we are not.”

Pep Guardiola labelled forwards Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez an “incredible weapon” after the pair struck during a gritty 2-1 win at Fulham which returned Manchester City to the Premier League summit.

The champions had not been top since February 17 and were made to work hard to move above Arsenal by a determined Fulham side.

Marco Silva’s men showed their resilience after Haaland scored his 50th goal of the season from a spot-kick to give City the lead after just three minutes.

The Cottagers found a leveller through Carlos Vinicius, but it was a touch of class from Alvarez, who restored the visitors’ advantage in the first half – a strike that eventually secured all three points for Guardiola’s men.

The City manager praised his strike partnership, with Haaland taking his tally of league goals to a record-equalling 34 (alongside Alan Shearer and Andy Cole) for the most scored in a single Premier League season.

“I was really impressed that he took the penalty with the mentality that he has, strong and another goal helps us with Julian,” Guardiola said.

“Julian all the time helps us, he’s incredible, every time he plays he gives us everything.

“Quality goals and assists. Today with the penalty assist from Riyad (Mahrez) and after he has done so… we have two strikers when we need people in the box.

“These two guys are an incredible weapon that we have.”

World Cup-winner Alvarez has found opportunities somewhat limited this season, but Guardiola hinted he might find a way to play both the 23-year-old and Haaland.

“If you play almost all the games to be world champions for Argentina. He has something unique,” he said.

“But it has been a lot to understand that maybe in the future there can be something to make them both play. Especially in tight games.”

Fulham were dealt a blow for the remainder of their season, with injuries to Tim Ream and Andreas Pereira.

Ream has played every minute of Fulham’s Premier League campaign until he was forced off, while Pereira has been a key man since joining in the summer from Manchester United.

“Always difficult to take when you get the defeat,” Silva said. “It was what’s happened this afternoon.

“But the first thing is to mention that the worst thing that happened was not the result but the injuries to two players.

“Unfortunately for us it looks like serious situations in both cases.

“Tim Ream is probably not playing anymore this season and has broken his arm, let’s hope Andreas Pereira is not so serious.

“This is the worst thing, because after Mitrovic (serving an eight-game suspension) and the injury of Willian, with a small squad like we have it’s really tough to take.”

Eddie Howe saluted game-changer Callum Wilson after seeing him come off the bench to fire Newcastle ever-closer to Champions League qualification.

The 31-year-old England striker was left out of the starting line-up despite scoring twice at Everton on Thursday evening, but took full advantage of his introduction at the start of the second half to help himself to another double as the Magpies turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 win.

In the process, Wilson reached 15 goals for the season to remind onlookers that record signing Alexander Isak is not the only player who can put opposition defenders to the sword.

Head coach Howe said: “Callum was exceptional – he changed the game for us.

“First and foremost, he comes on with the right attitude, as he always does. He’s got that desire to score, for the team and for himself as well, and he could have had a hat-trick. It was an outstanding display from Callum.”

For the second time this season, Wilson found himself named only among the substitutes after scoring a brace – a fate also suffered by Isak and Jacob Murphy in recent weeks – although Howe insisted he had not been banging on his door to ask him why.

He said: “We’ve had discussions and talks, but there’s been no bending the ear.

“I know he’s desperate to play every minute of every game, but I do think I have a duty to manage him as well and make sure that he stays fit for as long as possible because when he is fit and playing and doing what he did today, I don’t think there’s anyone better.

“I’m delighted for him, and it obviously gives me food for thought as we go through the last five games.

“In a three-game week previously, Callum would probably have played every game – and every minute of every game – and that might have meant he picked up an injury, so we can manage him carefully.

“But what I would say is that in times where he has been managed, his attitude has been absolutely first-class. That’s why he’s able to perform as he has.”

Meanwhile, Howe revealed that X-rays have confirmed midfielder Sean Longstaff did not suffer a foot fracture at Everton and could yet play again this season.

The victory – Newcastle’s eighth in nine Premier League outings – kept them in third place, two points clear of Manchester United who have a game in hand, with time running out fast for the chasing pack.

It was secured in starkly different fashion to those over Tottenham and Everton in the past week, with Stuart Armstrong stunning the home crowd with a 41st-minute opener before Wilson intervened either side of substitute Theo Walcott’s own goal.

The Saints were more than in the game at the break but succumbed tamely after it to leave boss Ruben Selles wounded, but defiant.

He said: “I’m very positive. We’re still alive, it’s still six points. I’m going to go to try to win the next four games, as I have been trying to do in every single game since I took the team.

“My chances are still there and I’m going to grab every single percentage of that. I know it’s low, but I’m going to fight until the very end of the season.”

John Lundstram admits Rangers cannot endure another season of frustration like this one after their last chance of silverware disappeared with a 1-0 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat against Celtic.

The Light Blues, who went into the game at Hampden Park as cup holders, were punished just before the break for failing to play to the whistle, with Daizen Maeda crossing for Jota to head in the only goal of the game.

Rangers have failed to beat their Old Firm rivals in their last six meetings and effectively the Hoops need only beat Championship side Inverness in the June 3 final to complete the domestic treble.

Midfielder Lundstram said: “We’re disappointed. I thought we played really well for large spells of the game.

“But we’ve just got to find that bit of quality in the final third and at the other end mistakes let us down again.

“The ball is still in play and the ref hasn’t blown his whistle. We’ve got to play to the whistle. It’s our mistake again. That’s disappointing.

“It’s frustrating for everyone but going forward into next season we’ve really, really got to nail it down because we can’t have another season like this season.

“We all want to win, we all want to do the right things, of course we do. But decision-making at times has got to be better.

“It’s let us down, not just today but on numerous occasions. All the lads have got to rally round and have a big, big push now for the start of the season.”

Lundstram insists there is belief in the dressing room that they can beat Celtic and they will get another chance when they host the Hoops in the final Old Firm league game at Ibrox in two weeks’ time.

He said: “You saw out there that there was a belief. We were the better team for large spells.

“We had one cleared off the line, hit the post, missed an open goal with Fashion (Sakala).

“So the belief is there but it’s just the fine margins. They are getting the fine margins better at the minute.

“At the end of the day we’ve got to finish those chances that we created.

“We’re getting in the right positions, it’s just not falling for us. It’s just frustrating for us at the minute and it’s still raw for me.

“Going forward, we need to start winning these Old Firm games. It’s no secret.

“Just really disappointed but of course going into the next one, those fine margins I’ve just spoken about, we can get them in our favour.”