Gerrard in a corner over Motherwell equaliser

Steven Gerrard has described losing a late equaliser to Mother well together with two points as “the first bump in the road” in his reign.

The manager was speaking at the start of a huge week for the Rangers. They travel to Russia to defend a 1-0 first leg lead over Ufa in the second leg of their Europa League play-off tie on Thursday and then on Sunday take on Celtic at Celtic Park in the first Old Firm clash of the season.

Gerrard held up his hands and acknowledged he might have been to blame for Peter Hartley’s equaliser with almost the last kick of the game. The Rangers manager elected to send on Lee Wallace for Ovie Ejaria before his side defended a corner to break a golden rule of management. It’s long been considered inadvisable to make a substitution at such a moment and risk creating confusion in the box.

Hartley, who earned headlines in the days leading up to the game by making comments he later retracted about relishing seeing former Rangers player Fabio Cardoso “weeping” after he broke his nose against Motherwell last season, connected with Gael Bigirimana’s corner to make it 3-3.

Gerrard accepted responsibility as far as the substitution was concerned but it was still very poor marking at the corner.

“If I’ve got it wrong I’ll take the

blame no problem,” he said. “They had four or five big units on there then and I had a defender sitting behind me who is 6ft 3in. With all due respect to Ovie – and he was good today – Lee Wallace is a lot better at defending setpieces. That was the thinking behind it.”

Gerrard accepts his side needs reinforcing following a serious injury to Jamie Murphy. However, he rebuffed one report claiming Rangers are interested in signing former Dundee United winger Ryan Gauld from Sporting Lisbon. He also dismissed reports linking the Ibrox side with Swansea City winger Nathan Dyer.

On Gauld, he said, there was “nothing” to report. “I’ve been asked about Nathan Dyer and there’s nothing in that either,” he added.

Rangers will attempt to get someone in before the deadline. “Hopefully we can get a centre-back in,” said Gerrard. “Not sure if it will be loan or permanent – could be either.”

Gerrard described yesterday as another education. His side conceded the first goal for the first time this season and came back twice to lead 3-2 at half-time.

“The boys responded really well to that setback and they are bitterly disappointed they didn’t see it over the line,” said Gerrard.

“It’s our first bump in the road together and it was an education for the players in terms of what we faced. We have to learn and move on.” Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson praised his side’s perseverance but was disappointed they only came away with a draw.

“I definitely think we deserved more than a point,” he said. “To score three goals at home and not get all three is disappointing.”

On Hartley’s contribution at the end of an eventful week, he said: “Actions speak louder than words. That’s the way to do it. Do your talking on the pitch, not off it.”