The Light Blues crashed out of the Scottish Communities League Cup quarter-final at the hands of the Highlanders at Ibrox. The 3-0 defeat came just hours after 'oldco' Rangers formally entered liquidation and McCulloch acknowledged there is a long road ahead in the Irn-Bru Third Division side's ongoing recovery. He said:
"Maybe it was a bit of a reality check about how far we've got to go to get back to where we were.
"It's going to be a long road and it's going to take a bit of hard work to get there. It shows we won't be getting carried away with ourselves."
Goals from Andrew Shinnie, Gary Warren and a Graeme Shinnie penalty secured the victory for top-flight Inverness. The Rangers performance fell well short of their efforts against then Clydesdale Bank Premier League leaders Motherwell in the last round. McCulloch said:
"It was a disappointing night for us. Inverness were the better team. "They passed the ball better, created more chances and probably deserved it more than us.
"There was something different tonight from the Motherwell game. The tempo wasn't there that we played at against Motherwell.
"That's disappointing and I don't know why that was the case.
"We played a game three days ago on an Astroturf pitch - are the boys' legs sore? I don't think so. I just think they wanted it more than us.
"We are just bitterly disappointed to be out of the cup.
"With a crowd of 28,000 coming here, with it being Halloween, a cold night, raining - they deserved better than what we showed. We just didn't seem to get going."
The day began well for McCulloch, who signed a new two-year deal, keeping him at Ibrox until 2015. He said:
"I was delighted to sign another two years. Hopefully in this season and in that two years we can get a bit of success and get back to where we belong."
Inverness boss Terry Butcher said:
"I feel sorry for Ally [McCoist] because a lot of the things they tried and did just didn't come off.
"We are just delighted to be there and it hasn't sunk in.
"In the next few days we will look at it and say 'Wow, look at what we have achieved."
Source: team_talk
