Steven Gerrard: No beef over Rangers' late penalty claim

Steven Gerrard dismissed the suggestion that his men should have had a late penalty but the Rangers manager did feel they had done enough to merit leaving Easter Road with all three points.

He was left to rue a lack of ruthlessness in front of goal, as the 0-0 draw against Hibs saw his side replaced by Celtic at the top of the Premiership. Gerrard said he couldn’t be too unhappy with the performance and credited Hibs substitute keeper Adam Bogdan for keeping his strikers at bay. Bogdan replaced the injured Ofir Marciano in the first half.

“We certainly want to improve on that ruthlessness in front of goal, not just tonight, always,” said the Ibrox manager. “But sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say we’ve found a sub keeper tonight 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.

Hibs midfielder Mark Milligan suggests the ball hit him on the shoulder as Rangers players appeal for a penalty at Easter Road

“We asked the players to defend perfectly and that was nearly there. And going forward we caused them all kinds of problems, we ran their defence ragged. Neil Lennon said to me coming off that 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.

“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. But we are playing against a good team who have lost here once in the calendar year. I don’t think Neil Lennon’s had many tests like he had tonight.”

They may have had a penalty late on when Hibs midfielder Mark Milligan appeared to move his arm to the ball to block a shot but Gerrard felt it would have been harsh. “There was a bit of a lean into it but the connection was on the shoulder, so no,” said Gerrard. “It would have been a soft one and unfair on Hibs so I have no complaints with that.”

Lennon accepted Hibs had been fortunate to escape with a share of the spoils but four points from back to back games against Celtic and Rangers was a source of satisfaction for the Easter Road manager.

“It was a great point in the end,” he said. “I thought we rode our luck at times. It wasn’t ideal losing our goalkeeper after little over ten minutes. But I am delighted with the point. We can play better, but you have to give credit to Rangers as well. I thought they were very good.”