OLD Firm managers Steven Gerrard and Brendan Rodgers were united in calling last night for league officials to look again at the Betfred Cup semi-final schedule – because it is unfair to ask either of the two Glasgow giants to play their last four encounter around 40 hours after Europa League duty.

After discussions with broadcasters BT Sport, the dates for the semi-finals were confirmed this week as Saturday October 27 and Sunday October 28, just days after Rangers host Spartak Moscow and Celtic travel to RB Leipzig in European competition on the Thursday night.

But with both halves of the Old Firm, who progressed last night against Ayr United and St Johnstone respectively, being kept apart, one of them now faces playing Thursday-Saturday against opponents in either Aberdeen or Hearts who have a full week to prepare. While there is only limited wriggle room, with English televised matches on Sunday and a full Scottish top flight card the following midweek, other solutions, such as playing both matches on Sunday, one at Murrayfield and one at Hampden, may now have to come into the equation.

“The way I understood it was the first tie out of the draw plays on the Saturday?” joked Gerrard, after Hearts v Celtic was the first tie out of the hat. “I thought that was always the case?

"Listen, whoever has to do that, it’s not fair on any team, having played on the Thursday night," he added. "I’ll be interested to see the outcome, how they decide. All the best with that one. We’ll deal with that when we have to. I’m not sure how they will select who plays when or what the rules are. Whoever has to do it it won’t be fair as 48 hours is not enough.”

“I think they will have to look at it now,” said Rodgers. “It obviously presents a problem because there are midweek games the week after. I’ll let them sort that out.”

Rangers will go into that semi-final without his two most recognised strikers after Alfredo Morelos picked up his second booking of the competition for dissent. With Kyle Lafferty cup tied for the competition, it could be costly but Gerrard said he understood the Colombian’s frustration with a tackle from Jamie Adams which he felt should have been a booking. “The ref [Bobby Madden] said that their player got the ball cleanly but I disagree,” said Gerrard. “He’s got it wrong at some points in the season and I’ve told him about that but I get his frustration here. But we suffer as a club and that’s the disappointing thing. It’s the only thing that disappoints me tonight.”

“The aim was to get to the semi-final. As a manager and staff we had to get the balance right in terms of making changes and keeping a strong team out there. I also had one eye on Livingston on Sunday which is going to be a big three points for us. So I’m really pleased to get the job done with four goals and a clean sheet.”

Ayr manager Ian McCall had no quibble with the scoreline but revealed Madden had admitted he should have awarded Ayr a penalty when the score was goalless. The match official waved play on when Jon Flanagan appeared to impede Alan Forrest in the box after just minutes of play – even though he felt 4-0 was a fair reflection of the gap between the two sides.

“I thought 4-0 was a fair reflection of the game,” said McCall. “It was hard for us but we played okay. We felt we should have had a penalty at 1-0. It was a clear penalty and Bobby says he will phone us to apologise. But 4-0 was a fair reflection of the game. We were pleased with the crowd, the higher the better in terms of us getting some finance and we move on to play Morton, which is more important for us.”