Glasgow Rangers missed out on the Scottish Cup final as the Ibrox side were demolished by their bitter rivals.
In truth, it was an awful afternoon for Murty’s men that would leave even his biggest supporters struggling to find a reason why he deserves to stay on as Gers boss beyond this season.
Celtic ran out 4-0 winners and rarely looked as though they were going to be troubled by the Light Blues at Hampden Park, with Murty deciding to make a tactical substitution before the break and Ross McCrorie being sent off shortly after the interval.
It was an extremely dark day for Rangers. And Murty admitted after the game that he could not bring himself to assess the result once the squad was left to lick their wounds in the dressing room.
Murty has proved on two occasions that he can be the ideal short-term caretaker manager. He picked up the pieces when Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha left the club and deserved an enormous amount of praise for what he did in the wake of their respective departures.
However, it appears that he, and the club’s hierarchy, have been found out in the last few months and there is still a huge amount of work ahead if they hope to close the gap to the league leaders over a sustained period.
Unfortunately for Murty, for all his good work, the image of the 43-year-old standing on the Hampden Park sidelines as Celtic stroll into the final is likely to be the one that defines his tenure at Ibrox.
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