Steven Gerrard insists his Rangers side can wave goodbye to their title hopes if they repeat their Livingston horror show in a match that had to be halted temporarily after an assistant referee was struck by an object thrown from the crowd.
Official Calum Spence, who was standing in front of the away fans, was treated for a cut to the back of his head before carrying on for the remaining half an hour of the game.
The Ibrox boss afterwards admitted his side could have played all day and not found the net at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
Dolly Menga's goal gave Gary Holt's brave side a shock win as Rangers slide down to sixth spot in the Ladbrokes Premiership and now trail table-topping Hearts by eight points just seven games into the season.
The Tynecastle men visit Ibrox next Sunday and Gerrard has now issued a stark warning to his misfiring squad. 'Hearts was a must-win game whether we won, drew or lost today,' he said. 'They are the team to chase, they have come out of the blocks flying.
'It is still early on in the season so we can recover from a result like this like we recovered from the Old Firm loss. But this can't keep happening. When we come and play teams like Livingston we have to try and take maximum points, otherwise we won't be in the title race.'
Rangers dominated possession but Livingston did much more with the ball they had. Menga smashed home seven minutes before the interval and while Rangers huffed and puffed after the break, they played into the hosts' hands with a string of misplaced passes.
Gerrard added: 'We were nowhere near good enough in the final third. We could be playing for another 180 minutes and wouldn't look like scoring.
'So we have to take the criticism when we don't perform.'
Bacon-man
0
He's never won leagues before so there's no difference really.
He only started management this season, how is he supposed to have won anything at this point
Bacon-man
0
Sorry Stevie but you are 6th in the table and 8 points off the leaders and you are talking like you are still in the title hunt. You've got no chance. Also no need to be disrespectful to a team ahead of you in the league. Makes you sound very jealous.
In no way was Gerrad disrespect towards Livingston
Bacon-man
1
I’m not giving up hope yet. Livingston are a strong team, and rangers were always going to find it tough to beat them. All that’s happening here is that rangers are going through the same period that Celtic went through 1 week ago. Celtic may be 4th in the table, but there’s only a point between 4th and 6th. There’s also only 3 points between 2nd and 6th. If rangers win the next game against Hearts, it would give them a lift. I still think Steven Gerrad has done a great job so far, and has changed rangers for the better. Come on rangers!!
continuebe
0
Sorry Stevie but you are 6th in the table and 8 points off the leaders and you are talking like you are still in the title hunt. You've got no chance. Also no need to be disrespectful to a team ahead of you in the league. Makes you sound very jealous.
Yamahafor
1
He's never won leagues before so there's no difference really.
likeermen
0
What a great day. As today is a good of day as any I would like to turn your attention something I am passionate about. The Scottish Government are planning to indefinitely close down the Children's ward in St John's Hospital Livingston in the coming months. Meaning the 3000 odd children who are seriously ill and their families, who use the service, would have to travel all the way out to Edinburgh/Glasgow, have to get to know staff they don't know and have all this stress put on them whilst going through the most difficult period their lives. For a party, the SNP, who positions themselves as the anti-austerity party(the SNP) this is criminal. People I know have been battling against the SNP for over 7 years but appear to be losing this fight so if you could spread this around and help to maybe stop this from happening it would be much appreciated.
ointmentkiss
0
No chance this season or for the foreseeable future.
Derrickse
0
Title. Is he for real? Utterly deranged