ANDY HALLIDAY has admitted he will never forgive Graeme Murty for substituting him four minutes before half-time against Celtic in the Scottish Cup.

The former Ibrox midfielder was recalled by Murty to the Gers starting line-up for the first time in weeks before he was hooked just minutes before the interval as the Light Blues succumbed to a 4-0 Old Firm defeat in 2018.

Gers youth coach Murty has since told of his regret for making the call to sub Halliday off, but as the 28-year-old explains no words will ever make up for what he was put through on that nightmare day at Hampden.  

Speaking to Si Ferry on Open Goal, he said: “I have always been my biggest critic.

“That Celtic game going into the semis, that was the first time I had started a game in about six or seven weeks.

“There’s nothing worse, but at the same time I was buzzing that it was an Old Firm.

“At the same time it is a cauldron to be thrown into.

“Again I wasn’t playing well but none of us were playing well.

“Listen, the fact of the matter is that I felt, and I’m sure everybody would agree, was that if he felt he had to make a sub you could have waited four minutes and done it at half-time.

“Being the local boy, being the Rangers fan you know how it is going to be with the press and the reaction it is going to get from the Celtic fans.

“So again raging, but if we could have made eight subs that day we would have probably made eight because Celtic battered us and we were poor.

“I felt as if I was made a scapegoat a wee bit on that occasion because I was just back in the team but if you were going to make the sub you could have waited four minutes.

“He never [explained why he did it].

“I have always been one to talk to managers after things and that was one where I just couldn’t.

“To be honest I don’t think I will ever forgive him for doing that, but at the same time it is what it is.

“I have still had a relationship with him since, he was still with the youth players at Rangers and I tried to help the youth players and I’ve spoken to him on a couple of occasions.”

Following the match, Rangers veterans Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace were suspended by the club pending an investigation into an alleged angry exchange with Murty.

The suspension sparked the end of the experienced duo’s time at Ibrox and Halliday insists that was the matter that hurt him most that weekend.

He added: “That day was hard for myself, hard because we lost the game against Celtic, but genuinely from the bottom of my heart the biggest thing I took away from that game was, I lost two of my best teammates and two of my good mates in football.

“That was effectively the end of Kenny [Miller] and Waldo’s [Lee Wallace] Rangers career.

“That was the way it ended and that hurt me just as much as my own personal agenda.

“It was stuff you see every single day in football, every week in football, emotions are running high after you’ve lost to your rivals and that is it.

“There were words said, there were no fights, no punches were thrown and I would never have thought that was going to lead to the two of them losing their Rangers career.

“And that hurt me the most because it was two good players, two brilliant teammates and two brilliant guys.”