STEVEN Gerrard last night praised his Rangers players for their performance in the 0-0 draw with Hibernian at Easter Road - despite the result allowing Celtic to move above them into first place in the Ladbrokes Premiership.
The Ibrox club dominated the league game in Edinburgh, but failed to take their scoring chances and slipped to second in the top flight table behind their city rivals as a consequence.
However, Gerrard, who revealed that Scott Arfield had suffered a hamstring injury in the first-half, was content with how his players acquitted themselves against Neil Lennon's side.
“The performance was there," he said. "We were excellent for the majority of the game. So I was really pleased and proud of the performance.
“I was disappointed with the result obviously because we’ve been so dominant and created the best chances in the first half, the best chances in the second half.
“We’ve done everything but find that breakthrough. So it’s a little bit mixed. I’m pleased with the performance but not the result."
Gerrard added: "We certainly want to improve on that ruthlessness in front of goal, not just tonight, always.
“But sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say we’ve found a sub keeper (Adam Bogdan) who has come on and bailed his team out on probably four or five occasions.
“You can’t be too critical of players, we’re creating chances, we’re getting really good opportunities to score.
“The reason we were top of the league before the game was probably Alfredo (Morelos) and he’s the one who had the chances tonight.
“So we are not critical, we’re really pleased with the performance and the game plan. We asked the players to defend perfectly and that was nearly there.
“And going forward we caused them all kinds of problems, we have ran their defence ragged all over the place.
“Neil Lennon said to me coming off we were outstanding. As a manager I can’t ask more of my players.
“That’s been our best performance for a long time, certainly away from home. If we can find that consistency away from home I will be very, very pleased.
“The reality is that it’s two points dropped. But as a boss you look at the performance of the team and there were lots of positives. I don’t think Neil Lennon’s had many tests like he had tonight."
Asked about Arfield, Gerrard said: “He’s not okay, it's a hamstring. We have a few carrying knocks and we need bodies for the weekend, but we’re a bit thin.”
Hibs midfielder Mark Milligan appeared to handle a Morelos shot inside his own area in the 82nd minute, but Gerrard didn't think Rangers deserved to be awarded a penalty.
Asked if referee Craig Thomson should have awarded a spot kick, he said: “No I don’t think so. There was a bit of a lean into it, but the connection was on the shoulder, which I am told is allowed, so no.
“It would have been a soft one and unfair on Hibs so I have no complaints with that."
Gerrard admitted he was unhappy with the challenge on Rangers midfielder Lassana Coulibaly by Hibs centre half Ryan Porteous in the second-half - a foul the defender was only booked for.
“I was upset with Porteous’s tackle because he hasn’t tried to play the ball," he said The ball has gone and he’s come in high towards the knee.
“Look, he’s a young lad in Scotland and I don’t like talking about it after the game, but the reality is that the ref was three yards away and that was a very, very dangerous tackle.
“In my book, in Neil’s book in anyone’s book that was a dangerous tackle."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel