Ronny Deila has insisted he is focused only on the remaining five league games of the season as he looks to lift Celtic following yesterday’s William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Rangers.

The Norwegian batted away questions about his immediate future as Celtic manager, maintaining that his only thought is to deliver the league title.

It seems inevitable that there will be a parting of the ways this season but Deila was reluctant to speak of anything other than the games that lie in wait. Whether he is afforded that time remains to be seen.

“You know you are going to get those questions all the time and when you don’t get the result you wanted you get those questions,” said Deila. “Today I am very disappointed. I’m not thinking about that at all. I know why the question is coming but again now we have to just lift ourselves after this disappointment and get the league over the line.

“Today it’s the ups and downs of football,” he said. “It’s been a rollercoaster season with no real momentum and some setbacks.

“Again that’s something we have to work through. We can’t expect pity and i can’t either. We have to go into this ourselves and turn it around.

“That’s for the future. The only thought I have now is to get the league into Celtic park.

“After this match it’s hard to talk about those things – there is a lot of emotion. With bad results you get the questions.”

Celtic, as has been the case so often this season when questions have been asked in a pressurised environment, were found wanting.

And yet, while they were second best to a Rangers side imbued with verve and desire, they could reflect on a missed open goal, a shot off a post, a free-kick off a crossbar and a wrong call in the build-up to Rangers’ second goal.

They could and should have had enough to see the Ibrox side off when they twice came back into the game, but it was a limp display from a team that have regressed considerably.

“We didn’t press well enough and we were not intensive enough in that we could have intercepted more balls than we did,” reflected Deila. “Also we need to be much quicker and calmer on the ball and play our game. That’s the disappointing thing. The positive is that we came back two times and created some chances but overall it’s not the best day we’ve had.

“I think it was quite an even game. We had our chances but I think we have more to offer than we showed today.”

And Deila was also reluctant to point a finger at Craig Thomson, who overruled his assistant to give Rangers a throw-in immediately before the Ibrox side’s second goal.

“It’s a clear throw-in to Celtic but again if that is the main part of the game then it’s too small a detail,” he said. “Had it been a penalty then we’ll talk about it but from a throw we should have stopped it.”

Meanwhile, the Celtic manager believes that next season will still be a challenge for Rangers to catch the Hoops in the title race.

“We will be ready when they come up,” he said. “We are top of the league and now we are going to fight to get that title into Celtic Park. We’ll see next year what they have to offer – it’s a totally different thing to do it over 38 games and doing it over one.

“They have improved and have the second biggest budget in the country and they will have pressure to perform.”