THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE FIGHT
Gerrard knows his Gers let win slip away and admits: ‘We weren’t ruthless enough’
STEVEN GERRARD has been in Glasgow long enough to know even the slightest bump in the road will be treated like a 10-car pile-up.
The trouble for the Ibrox boss is his side are making an unfortunate habit of careering into potholes they should see coming a mile off.
So far, these semi-regular prangs have not been enough to steer the champions off course.
But keep it up and Rangers’ route to the title could become far bumpier than anyone at Ibrox may have expected in the summer.
Yet again on Saturday it was Gers’ inability to construct a full 90-minute display that cost them, this time against Hearts.
Everything was motoring along nicely for 45 minutes, with John Lundstram’s sweet opener just before the break rich reward for a slick display.
But instead of putting the foot down and racing off towards a win that would have extended their lead at the top to four points, Rangers missed a gear change and allowed the Jambos back in.
Robbie Neilson had warned his Gorgie side pre-match they were about to face the biggest test of their Premiership credentials as they put their unbeaten start to the season on the line in Govan.
They did well to hold on during a first half with one-way traffic towards Craig Gordon’s goal.
But when Rangers came off the pedal following the change of ends, Neilson’s team delivered yet another nasty dent to Rangers’ aim to achieve a repeat of last year’s stress-free ride to the finish line with Craig Halkett’s last-minute equaliser.
Rangers now turn their attention to Thursday’s Europa League group game at home to Brondby.
And Gerrard is hoping the clash with the Danes will be the game that finally sparks his stuttering side back to their best.
He said: “When you’re Rangers manager and you don’t win, it’s always a crisis outside with the noise, the frustration, the disappointment.
“But my job is to remain as balanced as I can. It’s not what we wanted, I appreciate that.
“But we’ve got a huge game on Thursday night and I need to get the boys ready for that.
“If I’m frustrated and disappointed now but we’re top of the league, it’s not a bad place to be in.
“Was this a warning shot? We’ve already had that warning with the Motherwell result. And what we did do after Motherwell is react really well. We’ve got a huge game on Thursday night.
“We need to try to find the first-half performance for longer.
“If we do, then maybe we can kickstart our form in Europe.
“Then we’ve got another really tough game away at St Mirren.
“We need a reaction from another disappointment because I thought the control and the performance against Hearts meant we should be talking about three points rather than one.”
Had Alfredo Morelos been in top form, the home side almost certainly would have been.
Lundstram’s opener – a peach of strike curled home from 25 yards out after Halkett half-cleared an Ianis Hagi cross – came five minutes before the interval but after a period in which Rangers failed to do maximum damage with their domination.
Morelos snatched at three first-half openings but none of them could be pegged in the stick-on category.
However, the same can’t be said of the late chance Kemar Roofe laid on a plate for him in the dying stages.
Four yards out with Gordon out of the equation, all the Colombian had to do was steer the ball into the empty net.
But somehow the striker prodded wide, teeing up the inevitable as Hearts ran up the park to grab a corner. Allan McGregor had earlier bailed out Morelos with a brave stop after former Ibrox midfielder Barrie McKay burst through on goal.
But when the 39-year-old flapped at Gary Mackay-Steven’s delivery, Halkett stooped to head home and punish Gers’ profligacy, making it nine league games unbeaten for second-placed Hearts.
Gerrard said: “The one that Roofe puts on a plate for Morelos, normally that goes in, it’s game over and we’re talking about a fantastic
win. Unfortunately we’re not because we weren’t ruthless enough.
“We are where we want to be in terms of our position in the league.
“But we know that performancewise and consistency-wise, we’ve still got levels to go to, which is a positive.
“But you can’t keep letting points slip away from you. You can’t do that.
“On both sides of our game we’ve still got a level to go into.
“In the first half they didn’t have a shot on our goal. Defensively we were fine, we played with control and created chances.
“Second half I don’t think we defended well. We became more passive as the game wore on.
“You’ve got to defend your box well enough. Last year we defended our box outstandingly well and got to where we wanted to be at the end of the season.
“We need to improve in that department for sure.”
You can’t keep letting points slip away... we have still got a level to go into