Rangers travel to Holland for Thursday’s Europa League qualifier but some reckon they met a bunch of cloggers at Easter Road on Sunday.
The fallout from an incident-packed ding-dong with Hibs dominated the Hotline ahead of the Light Blues trip across the North Sea where they will face Willem II in Tilburg.
Ryan Porteous was snubbed by Steven Gerrard and some of the Gers players following the 2-2 draw with the Scotland Under-21 stopper, who has history with Gers, involved in an incident with Alfredo Morelos.
Gerrard claimed more action should have been taken by officials who missed Martin Boyle in an offside position in the build-up to the home side’s leveller and Paul Hanlon also catching Ianis Hagi with an elbow.
John Bruce emailed: “Sky Sports pundit Andy Walker said that he liked the ‘nasty’ tactics used by Hibs against Rangers.
“This was borne out by Ryan Kent having his ankle deliberately stamped on, without the challenge being cautioned, and Ianis Hagi being elbowed in the face, with that challenge only being yellow carded - among other suspect incidents.
“Rangers fans will be interested to see if these ‘nasty’ tactics will be used again by Hibs when they visit Parkhead on Sunday or if it’s just when they play Rangers.”
Stuart McLeod emailed: “It was really disappointing to watch Ryan Porteous again trying to act the big man, running about the park getting involved in off the ball incidents.
“He was booked for an off the ball incident involving Alfredo Morelos that would certainly have been a red had it been he other way around.
“Then he had a slap at Morelos later in the game while grinning like The Cheshire Cat. He has suffered a horrendous injury of his own but shows no signs of learning to make himself a better player.
“He is actually a good player and could have been the answer to Scotland’s central defensive problem but will be more remembered for his stupidity and horror tackles such as the one on Borna Barisic last season.”
Brian Stavert, Dumbarton, said: “Typical Steven Gerrard. All nicey-nicey when they’re winning but he can’t even acknowledge young Ryan Porteous after the game.”
Davie Knox, Queens Park, said: “Rangers were robbed of three points as the Hibs equaliser should never have stood and I just hope for a strong referee in the forthcoming Old Firm game.
“Looks like the years of harassment to referees by Celtic and their fans has paid off with decisions now clearly being made to keep them happy.”
Gordon Hendry, Ochiltree, said: “A catalogue of errors from the officials - with the Hibs equaliser offside - robs Rangers of the chance to go three points clear at the top.
“I’m looking forward to Thursday as a win in Holland would move us to within one game of reaching the Europa League group stage again.”
But Jimmy Laing, Lossiemouth, said: “Hibs committed 17 fouls and received four bookings. Rangers had 14 fouls and one player was shown a yellow card.
“Alfredo Morelos and Ianis Hagi went down like a sack of bricks one minute and were running around like Olympic sprinters the next And Hibs were denied a stonewall penalty.”
Jack Scott, Falkirk, said: “It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Rangers fans were talking of a potential 11-point advantage after Celtic’s two games were postponed due to Boli Bolingoli breaking Covid rules. Oh how we laughed.”
George Wilson, West Sussex, said: “I’ve seen enough to suggest that dropping two points is affordable as Celtic are not a strong team and Rangers are better.
“Celtic’s great defensive saviour Shane Duffy has hardly improved the defence and I do hope they persevere with Scott Brown who was never great in the first place but is now an embarrassment.”
Gordon Ashley, Ayr, said: “The reason Celtic have 11 trophies in a row while Rangers have won nothing is because when Celtic go a goal behind and get a bad decision against them they just get on with it and get the job done.
“Rangers mump and moan and feed the paranoia of their fans with conspiracy nonsense.”
