Rangers boss Steven Gerrard says there were 'incidents on both sides' amid Alfredo Morelos controversy against Hibs

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard brushed aside claims Alfredo Morelos should have been sent off against Hibs and insisted his team fully merited the 1-0 victory delivered by the Colombian striker’s goal at Easter Road.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard speaks to referee Kevin Clancy at full-time after his team's 1-0 win over Hibs at Easter Road. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Hibs boss Jack Ross believes Morelos should have seen a straight red card for the 19th minute incident when he appeared to stamp on defender Ryan Porteous.

The 24-year-old was not even cautioned by referee Kevin Clancy and went on to finish off an outstanding move six minutes into the second half for the only goal of the game as Rangers maintained their 23-point lead over Celtic at the top of the Premiership.

“I haven't had time to look at any of the incidents from the game,” said Gerrard.

“I remember a few from both sides – but I'd rather talk about the performance and the level of it.

“It was another fantastic team goal. Alfredo will deserve the credit for finishing it off.

“I took him off at the weekend to have him really fresh for tonight because I knew he'd have to do a lot of running.

“I knew we weren't coming here to play a technical game. We wanted to really find the space and when we got into the final third, then show our quality. But I think we deserved that team goal because of the application we've given to the game.

“It's always a tough fixture coming here. HIbs have good players and a good team.

“We were made to work extremely hard for our victory. But having said that I thought we thoroughly deserved it.

“We played with a lot of control in the first half, limiting them to very few chances at home.

“And I thought we went through the gears in the second half and really stepped it up and got exactly what we deserved.

“I'm really happy with the clean sheet. The boys have worked extremely hard. They've given us a lot of focus and a lot of application to achieve those clean sheets so far.

“We want to keep building on that and we want that to be our base, our organisation and our platform to go win games from."

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