RANGERS manager Steven Gerrard has criticised his players for being too casual during their win over Hamilton yesterday, saying that the final scoreline flattered his men.
Gerrard was disappointed with his team’s performance despite eventually running out as winners by four goals to one at the Hope CBD Stadium to claim their first victory away from home in the Premiership this season.
And he has warned them they will need to considerably up their level of display on the road if they are to avoid regularly dropping points on their travels in future.
“Performance-wise, we weren’t at it,” Gerrard said. “We weren’t great but I’m pleased with the three points and the result because all the talk before the game was about our away record and how we hadn’t had a win for eight months.
“The points were the most important thing for me but I wasn’t pleased with our display, to be honest.
“I think we were actually frightened when they equalised – that basically gave us the rocket we needed because, at 1-0 up, we were too casual and I didn’t feel comfortable on the sidelines. I always felt that they were going to have one opportunity or one decision that could have proved costly in terms of that win slipping from our grasp.
“But their goal scared us a bit and that sparked us into life. We then went on to win comfortably but 4-1 flattered us.”
Gerrard said there were many reasons why his team were so flat in comparison to their performances against Rapid Wien and Hearts, but has warned his men that there can be no excuses for such a drop in intensity.
“It came on the back of an international break, it was on a plastic pitch and maybe this wasn’t the juiciest of fixtures for players to motivate themselves for but you have to be up for it,” he said. “There are loads of factors but those are the ones at the forefront of my mind.
“Was the away record preying on their minds? I don’t know – you’d need to ask them. I said before the game that this was a great opportunity for us to prove we’re capable of winning on the road and we’ve done that. We’re away to St Mirren next and, if we perform like we did today, then it’ll be tricky again.
“I think we played better against Motherwell and against Aberdeen but we came away dropping points.
“As a manager sometimes you've got to accept that it might not always look great, especially on the back of Hearts and Rapid when it was sensational. Maybe I'm wanting that type of performance and it's never going to be like that.
“The sign of a good team and a team that's developing is that when they're not at it and not performing to the maximum they can still win a game."
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