‘Hopefully the ball will have pride of place in my new house’

the stadium thought he would. If I wasn’t on two [goals] he wasn’t passing, no chance. But fair play to him.

“It’s my very first hattrick,” he said. “There were plenty for Murieston Boys’ Club, mind, but none of you lot were watching me back then. I’ve just moved into a new house so hopefully the match ball will have pride of place there. The kids can look at it and see that their dad did all right in one game.”

Gerrard praised Arfield’s “clinical” finishing, adding that he knew all about the player’s runs from midfield from having played against him for Liverpool.

“You’ve got to credit [Burnley manager] Sean Dyche [for that part of Arfield’s game]. I came up against Scott many times when he played that narrow left-sided role and he can do it on the right also. He’s a very clever individual out on the pitch. He understands tactics and where to be in and out of possession.”

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson admitted errors arising out of Motherwell’s change of philosophy had cost them the match but insisted they wouldn’t be changing their style.

“I’m disappointed with the result,” he said. “We cost ourselves the game. I don’t there was any great Rangers play. There were three individual errors.

“We didn’t deal with the ball in our own box when we should have cleared it and that led to the first goal. We’re playing differently, playing out from the back, it’s risk versus reward and our decision-making was poor for the next two goals.

“It is frustrating but if you go long you get hammered, if you play short you get hammered. What do people want? We’re a young squad. I looked around and I had Jamie Semple to bring on, a 17-year-old. We had an 18-year-old up front and these lads are going to make mistakes.”