James Tavernier takes positives from Rangers' Old Trafford performance against Manchester United despite defeat

Rangers captain James Tavernier admitted it was painful to concede a late goal to Manchester United and suffer Europa League defeat – but said there were positives to take.

A bizarre Jack Butland own goal had given the hosts a second half lead at Old Trafford but Rangers substitute Cyriel Dessers looked to have earned his side a point with a smartly-taken 88th minute goal.

However, Bruno Fernandes found the net for Manchester United in injury time to secure a 2-1 win and three points for his side, and leave Rangers ruing a missed opportunity.

Tavernier said that it was disappointing to have gone from what appeared to be a valuable equaliser to falling behind again late in the game.

“That’s football,” the Rangers skipper said. “That’s the disappointing part.

“We would probably have been coming in at full time happy with a point and then in a split second we lose a little bit of concentration and concede.

“That’s the level when you play against world-class players who can punish you if you switch off, and that’s what happened.”

Injury, suspensions and ineligible players meant manager Philippe Clement had to reshuffle his pack for the match and he included a number of young players in his matchday squad, with Bailey Rice, Findlay Curtis and Leon King all coming off the bench.

Their contribution was a positive for Tavernier.

“I’m obviously just disappointed with the result,” he said. “We put ourselves in a great position to get back into the game. And then we concede a goal that I think we could have done a lot better with.

“But I’ve got to really praise the team and all the young lads that came in and stepped up.

“They came into a massive game like this and really stepped up. I’m really happy that our youth players are coming into the team and making a claim for positions.

“It’s disappointing but we can take positives from it.”