Rangers boss Steven Gerrard says big win 'had been coming' as he savours 8-0 demolition of Hamilton

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard believes his team’s form so far this season meant the kind of rout they inflicted upon Hamilton was due to happen sooner rather than later.

The scoreboard at Ibrox tells the story of Rangers' biggest win under Steven Gerrard's management as they boosted their goal difference and remained nine points clear at the top of the Premiership. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Gerrard’s side extended their unbeaten start to the 2020-21 campaign to 20 games in all competitions with the 8-0 drubbing of bottom of the table Accies. It’s the first time Rangers have scored eight goals in a top flight match since an 8-1 win at Kilmarnock in 1980.

Joe Aribo, Kemar Roofe and James Tavernier all scored twice with goals from Scott Arfield and Brandon Barker contributing to a result which sees Rangers go into the international break with a nine-point lead over Celtic at the top of the Premiership, having played two games more than the defending champions.

"It has been coming, we have threatened to do that and get a really big win,” said Gerrard. “But the pleasing thing today was that we were very clinical. We suffocated Hamilton from start to finish, we stayed on them and never let them off the hook.

"We never took our foot off the gas and you could see the quality throughout the squad. I made five changes today, brought five subs on and it didn’t affect our level of performance. That is the most pleasing thing for me.

“Look, we are not at the stage yet where we can play with ego in any game or at any stage. We are trying to become a winning team, a successful team. We are in no position to disrespect any opponent or any team. It is about Rangers trying to be as strong for as long as we can and be as consistent as we can.

“It was a very impressive performance, a strong win and another clean sheet. The thing that pleased me the most was the standards that we maintained from start to finish. I have been on to these players, probably on to them too much, about keeping standards no matter what stage the game is at. It pleased me at half-time that we carried on looking to score goals and win even more emphatically.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.