NATHANGOES ZEROTOHERO
put his team back in a commanding 2-1 lead with only his second touch of the ball.
Patterson’s redemption was the most remarkable story on a night of drama as Rangers went on to wrap up a place in today’s last-16 draw with an emphatic 5-2 victory and a 9-5 aggregate routing of the Belgians over two legs.
The 19-year-old missed last week’s 4-3 away win after being fined by cops for attending an illegal house party with Zungu, Bassey as well as academy players Dapo Mebude and Brian Kinnear.
At that point his Ibrox future was in doubt but, following last night’s heroics, Gerrard insisted that the trio deserved a second chance.
He said: “Nathan was superb in terms of his football tonight, he came on with the right mentality and brought energy, physicality and obviously scored a wonderful goal. “It was the reaction that he needed and that we needed for the team, more importantly. He has had a whirlwind week, along with the other two, and we are trying to draw a line under it. They have been punished inter nally and they have been spoken to internally. “We hope they’ll learn from that moving forward and the quicker we can move on, the better. It’s been quite a week and it should be the biggest learning curve of that boy’s career. “He’s a fantastic kid and comes from a lovely family. He needs to understand what the people top to bottom at this club think of Nathan and the opportunity he’s got. “He needs to learn from this and make sure it doesn’t happen again because you can see tonight he’s a wonderful footballer with a big future ahead of him. “As someone who’s got four kids myself, I want to be someone who gives people a second chance. “As a human being I have made similar mistakes myself. I hope he takes on board what we have said to him this week and that he learns from it.”
With skipper James Tavernier already injured and stand-in right back Leon Balogun also limping off last night, Patterson is in line to start next week at Livingston before being walloped with a lengthy SFA ban for his rule break.
Gerrard said: “He’s going to have to take a bit more punishment. That goes for all three of them.
“Hopefully it helps him in terms of development.”
But the Rangers boss was left beaming with pride once again as his team made it into the last 16 for the second season on the spin with another explosive display. Goals came from Alfredo Morelos, Patterson and Ryan Kent before two spot-kick strikes from Borna Barisic and sub Cedric Itten.
He said: “I’m very satisfied and very happy. The performance was outstanding. Over the course of the two legs we looked dangerous and we thoroughly deserved to score nine, if not more.
“To match last season’s efforts is really good from the boys and we’ll see what the draw brings. We want to enjoy it, we want to compete and we’ll see who we get.”
Antwerp boss Franky Vercauteren said: “I have to say congratulations to Rangers. If you concede nine goals over two games, give away four penalties, that’s down to the quality of the opponent.
“We didn’t reach the real level we needed. We’re disappointed we’re out but we have to admit we were beaten by a better side.”