FRASER FYVIE, the Hibernian midfielder, heightened tensions between his own club and their Ladbrokes Championship rivals, Rangers, last night by insisting that Andy Halliday deserved to be sent-off towards the end of their top-of-the-table encounter at Ibrox.

Rangers won 4-2 to move three points clear with two goals from Jason Holt and a Nicky Clark effort overhauling a first half opener from Jason Cummings. Dominique Malonga did pull the visitors back into the contest by making it 3-2 with three minutes to play, but Martyn Waghorn completed the scoring in the closing stages.

Halliday was red-carded by referee Bobby Madden with 20 minutes to play and the scoreline 3-1 after reacting to a foul from Fyvie in the middle of the field by appearing to aim a kick at his opponent before barging him with his shoulder.

Mark Warburton, the Rangers manager, will lodge an appeal with the Scottish Football Association against the decision this morning in an attempt to have the midfielder freed to play at Dumbarton on Saturday.

Fyvie emerged from his confrontation with Halliday holding his face, although television footage failed to show any contact in that area. Even so, the former Aberdeen player has claimed Madden had no option but to reduce Rangers to 10 men.

“If you look at the video, he kicks out at me to start off with then he leans in,” said Fyvie. “Bobby decided to send him off because he’s obviously acted aggressively towards me.

“Was he asking for a red card? I don’t think anyone asks for a red card, but I would say the referee had no choice.

“I barely touched him and he reacted poorly.”

Alan Stubbs, the Hibernian manager, also made his view clear when asked whether Fyvie’s reaction had forced Madden to reach for his red card.

“I disagree with that,” he said. “Fraser probably could have reacted better, but why has Andy Halliday put himself in that position?

“I was a bit worried because, coming off, I think Andy was blaming me, but I never made him go towards Fraser. They were winning the game at that time.

“Why lead with your shoulder? I thought Bobby was very good and managed the game fantastically well. If you look at the replay, you can see why he gave it (the red card).”

Stubbs could not resist a mischievous reply, something becoming his trademark, when asked whether he felt Rangers had a decent case for an appeal.

“It all depends who they get on the panel,” he said.

Warburton, though, is determined to take the matter further with the authorities.

“I have to be careful what I say, I suppose, but we will go through the due process,” said Warburton after the final whistle. “The right thing to do is discuss it through the appropriate channels, which we will do. We have just seen it and our decision is very clear.”

Warburton was under the cosh entering yesterday’s match, having won just two games out of six, but believes his players showed they can handle the weight of expectation.

“I was told we lacked a spine to our team from a certain outlet during the week, but I think we answered all the questions out there,” he said. “We showed how strong this squad is. Their desire is very clear as well as the work ethic.”

Stubbs spent weeks before the match lobbing verbal grenades in the direction of Ibrox, but Warburton insists he was never suckered in by such gamesmanship.

“When you have 52,000 fans at Ibrox, there is no need for motivation,” he said. “If there is, we have got a problem.”

Stubbs, meanwhile, was left to count the cost of some slack play from his side. Fyvie, for example, gave up possession far too easily at Rangers’ equaliser when passing the ball straight to James Tavernier.

“He should have done better,” said the Hibernian manager. “It’s things like that which can turn games.

“I thought we could have done better for at least two of the goals.

“This is not going to affect anything, though. I think we will respond to this.

“I think you could see there is not an awful lot between the teams. The league says that and my eyes tell me that.

“We have, literally, just touched halfway. If you had given me this situation before the season, I would have snapped your hands off.”

Falkirk remain just six points away from the top in third place and Stubbs believes they will contribute to an exciting end to the campaign. He certainly hopes the title race goes down to the wire.

“I think everybody would like that,” said Stubbs. “The good thing about it this that you have got us, Rangers and Falkirk, who could all potentially take points off each other.”

Cummings, of course, is being watched by a number of clubs in England – with Wolves, Burnley, Reading and Rotherham all credited with an interest – but Stubbs insists it will take an outlandish offer to prise him away from Easter Road at this delicate stage of the season.

“It would take a lot of money to take him away from here,” he said. “I think Jason has started to take his game to another level.”