Robbie Neilson was raging at getting sent to the stands – but the Hearts boss loved the sound of silence at Ibrox.
The Jambos gaffer missed his side's stoppage time leveller against Rangers after seeing red for wading in to a clash between Juninho Bacuna and Stephen Kingsley.
John Lundstam fired Gers ahead and Alfredo Morelos missed a glut of chances to grab his 100th goal for the club before the champions were punished at the end when Craig Halkett pounced to keep up the Tynecastle side’s unbeaten start to the season.
Neilson never saw the goal but he didn’t miss Bacuna or the fourth official who sent him packing.
He said: “I didn’t see the goal but I just heard the silence, which was nice.
“I was delighted. I was in the tunnel area and couldn't get down. I was disappointed to get the second yellow, but that’s football.
“I’m more disappointed with the fourth official. The boy grabbed Stephen Kingsley by the throat right in front of him.
“It’s a red card. He didn’t do it so we complained and I complained again and got a second one.
“But, look, when you come to these places you are not going to get those decisions.
“It was a stonewaller.”
Neilson refused to let the red card put a dampener on his side’s battling display at Ibrox.
He said: “I’ve got a really good group here – and we are still undefeated. The longer that continues the more teams will come after us.
“We’re the team to hunt down now.
“I thought it was a really good game. We went toe-to-toe with the champions. They created some chances, we created some chances, but I was just delighted for the players.
“They showed tremendous character. There were periods of the game we needed to fight.
“There were times we were in control as well. We wanted to come here and win but we’ll take the point.
“I thought we were on top when Rangers scored. The first 15-20 minutes we found difficult and we weren’t doing the things we spoke about before the game.
“But we started to get a foothold and had control before the goal. We had to ride the storm a little bit but the second half I thought we played really well.
“It’s about the next game now. There’s no point getting a point here and not doing it against Dundee.”
