Porteous back in the thick of it once again
long-standing needle between Ryan Porteous and, well, apparently everyone at Rangers showed no signs of letting up last night.
Already this season the Ibrox players have refused to share a post-match handshake with the Hibs man, while Steven Gerrard verbally slaughtered the Leith player when these teams fought out a draw at Easter Road earlier in the season.
And, Porteous was in the thick of it once again. This game was only 19 minutes old when Alfredo Morelos had one of his mad moments and, having already barged the Hibs defender over to concede a foul, the Rangers striker was extremely fortunate to escape with no further punishment after he appeared to stamp on the grounded 21-year-old.
Then, having been in the thick of it all game and infuriating the away side with his uncompromising style, it was Ryan Jack who lost it midway through the second half, raising his hand to push away the centre-back after some choice words were exchanged. That did catch the attention of referee Kevin Clancy but he was happy to settle it with a talking to.
Morelos did inflict the telling blow, though, popping up in the 51st minute to pounce on a Joe Aribo fllck through andslottheopeninggoalpast Ofir Marciano.
After the disappointment of Saturday, there were always likely to be changes to this Hibs line-up as Jack Ross searched for a result to appease fans. And there were high profile casualties as Paul Hanlon and Martin Boyle were dropped to the bench. Jamie Murphy was another absentee having aggravated his hamstring in that Betfred Cup semi-final loss.
Going with 3-5-2, Darren Mcgregor, Melker Halberg and Christian Doidge were deployed to fill the gaps.
While nothing they could do in this game would ever convince their angry supporters to forgive and forget that Hampden transgression, they had to move on and another positive perthe formance against the league leaders would see them back on track, with plenty still to look forward to, provided they can keep troubling the teams above them and stave off the treat of Livingston.
In the end, they failed to get a win but they did show more of the resilience Ross had been calling for.
Having conceded one goal, Hibsdidn’tcave.twominutes after Morelos’ strike Rangers again came close after Aribo dragged Porteus away and left space for Morelos in front of goal. The Colombian scooped it high and wide.
That miss gave Hibs hope of perhaps snatching something and while Porteous was substituted, carrying a slight injury, there were plenty of attacking options thrown into the mix, as Boyle and Scott Allan came on.
That gave them some pace to breakaway and that showed in the 77th minute when Marciano saved from Ryan Kent, batting it away, and his team-mates charged upfield. Jackson Irvine swung in a deep cross for Doidge to attack but he was inches away from connecting as he dived in at the back post.