“I am shell-shocked, if you want to put it that way and I have never been so embarrassed,” said the man who has so often been the United saviour with vital goals.

He almost got another one when the score was 2-1 in Rangers’ favour, but agonisingly saw his long-range effort early in the second half hit both posts.

That may have been a slice of bad luck, but McIntyre refused to make any excuses for this performance.

“There are certain moments in games that change the way they will go. There was my shot and a penalty claim we had, but, at the end of the day, we had 25 minutes when we played well and, other than that, we were abysmal.

“And, if you want to say ‘what about this moment or that moment for us?’ — what about Rangers in the first half? They could have had a lot more goals and Nick Colgan has had a good penalty save as well, so it could have been even worse.”

The experienced attacker admitted the result has put a dark cloud over preparations for Saturday’s Scottish Cup trip to Queen of the South — a tie that has become a must-win match for under-fire boss McCall.

“Saturday seems a mile away at the minute. Obviously, we are going to have to lift ourselves, but it’s hard to think about it just now.

“What makes this harder to take is that we’ve done well against Rangers in recent games. We know exactly what it takes to get a result against them. However, if you are not right against the Old Firm, you have no chance.”