Mccrorie glad to be caught in the middle with Rangers and hopes Gerrard can improve him

● Youngster driven to succeed at Gers ● Goal dedicated to ill grandmother

She has not got long to live so I hope she was watching and I made her proud.

“I have known for a couple of weeks about her situation. But this is my job and I need to put that on the back burner and not let it affect me. These things happen in life. I spoke to the family about it before the game so hopefully I made her proud.”

Mccrorie will be an anxious spectator at Easter Road this Sunday as he is suspended, along with striker Alfredo Morelos, for Rangers’ final Premiership fixture against Hibs as the battle for runnersup spot in the table reaches a dramatic climax.

He is hopeful his team-mates can build on their positive response at Aberdeen when a half-time dressing room inquest helped them produce a much improved performance in the second 45 minutes.

“We all knew we didn’t really turn up in the first half but in the second half we came out a lot better,” said Mccrorie. “We were still disappointed not to get the three points.

“It was really frustrating because we actually got off to a good start in the first 15 minutes before the penalty for Aberdeen put us on the back foot. I thought the second half was a much better performance, but we have put ourselves in a difficult decision for Sunday as we are still a point behind Aberdeen. We just have to go for the victory and see what happens elsewhere.

“On Sunday, we will need to go out all guns blazing and hopefully get three points. But we are also relying on Aberdeen’s result at Celtic Park.”