LIVI CELEBRATIONS WILL SPUR US ON

Tavernier urges team-mates to use pain of defeat to fire title ambitions

JAMES Tavernier has urged his Rangers teammates to use the memory of Livingston’s inflammatory post-match celebrations on Sunday as extra motivation to avoid bad results in future.

Tavernier, the Rangers captain, got involved in some ugly scenes following the final whistle at the Tony Macaroni Arena after his side had been beaten 1-0.

Declan Gallagher, the Livi player, was booked by referee Craig Thomson for his role in the altercations that flared as the two teams made their way up the tunnel.

Steven Gerrard’s men, who lost after conceding a first-half Dolly Menga goal, then had to listen to their opponents singing songs in the adjoining dressing room.

Gerrard stated afterwards that he had no problems whatsoever with the reaction to a victory that he believed Gary Holt’s promoted side had merited.

His skipper believes that rival teams will deliberately attempt to provoke a reaction from Rangers and they must not allow themselves to be dragged into confrontations. The right-back is hopeful Rangers, who

take on league leaders Hearts on Sunday, will be desperate to avoid similar painful experiences in the weeks and months ahead.

“There will be players in certain teams who will try to wind us up,” he said. “We can’t be seen to be reacting to that sort of behaviour. It is something we need to stay away from.”

Meanwhile, Tavernier (pictured) has denied that Rangers have an issue with playing away from home despite failing to win their fourth league game on the road in the 2018/19 campaign.

“I wouldn’t say there is an issue,” he said. “We got a positive result away to Villarreal and we were unlucky not to win it out there. Aberdeen was an unfortunate one because they conceded right at the end with 10 men. I don’t think the issue is playing away. ”

Defeat to Hearts this weekend would leave Rangers 11 points adrift after eight games and make it very difficult for them to mount a challenge for the Scottish title.

But Tavernier is only thinking about beating the capital club – who have won six times and drawn just once, against Livingston, in the league so far – for the first time this season.

“We can only look at it game-by-game rather than looking deep into the fixtures.

“We have the Europa League on Thursday and we will be looking for a positive result in that then we have to look about taking maximum points off Hearts.

“We should be looking to be going into every game to win it. We just need to try and win every game and try to catch the teams at the top.”