STEVEN GERRARD praised a 'faultless' showing from Joe Aribo as he showed his character and class to fill-in at left-back and help Rangers overcome Livingston.

The midfielder was asked to drop back into the unfamiliar position after Gerrard was left without the services of Borna Barisic and Calvin Bassey through injury and suspension respectively.

Aribo didn't put a foot wrong at the Tony Macaroni Arena as Rangers earned a 3-0 victory to move to the brink of an unbeaten Premiership campaign and a place in the Ibrox history books this term.

Rangers can now set new defensive and clean sheet records against Aberdeen on Saturday and Gerrard was pleased with another resolute showing as the Lions were comfortably beaten.

Gerrard said: “I thought he was faultless. We asked him to be solid, we asked him to win headers and tackles, we asked him to compete and get forward and play.

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"Good players can’t play anywhere all over the pitch – only top players can do that and Joe Aribo can play anywhere.

“All you need to say to him is: ‘I need a favour from you, I need a turn’ and he gave me that in abundance.

"He doesn’t have an ego but he was outstanding – he can do anything on a football pitch. He’s top.

“The challenge for me and us as a staff - certainly from March 7 and even more so after the St Johnstone setback - was could we keep the standards high in terms of our organisation and drive the players forward to keep clean sheets.

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“We’ve been successful in the league on clean sheets and our organisation, so the challenge was keeping the boys hungry and motivated.

“There is one more challenge left for them to do but the signs from tonight and leading into this game is that they are ready for Aberdeen."