Striker Kenny Miller has said that Ryan Jack’s sending off in the game against Hibernian was a sucker punch for Rangers as he felt we were in ‘cruise control’ at that stage of the game.
Hosting Neil Lennon’s side at Ibrox, Rangers had the early lead in the game but the sending off certainly swung the momentum and we ended up losing three two on the day.
Speaking to the Official Site as he spoke wit the media post game, Miller explained that going down to ten men gave us too much to do, especially as Hibs took the lead just after the dismissal.
‘Frustration and disappointment. Again it is another game where we have fired out of the blocks, get ourselves a nose in front early doors with a good goal and after that we are attacking them at will and having opportunities. It felt comfortable, we hit the post, we had other opportunities and then we got hit with a bit of a sucker punch which was disappointing.’
Miller went on to say.
‘Even at that point you are still confident you can go on and win the game but it is definitely the sending off that put the halt to it. That put us right up against it against a good team who are going to keep the ball off you, make you work when you`ve not got it to get it back.’
He again restated that the red card was the turning point and at least from what he saw of the incident he felt it was incredibly harsh on our summer signing.
‘Ultimately they punished us because we were down to 10 men which meant there was a lot of work to do. I never saw too much of the sending off to see if Ryan has made a motion forward with his head. To me it looked more of a coming together. We are maybe a bit unfortunate that Stokesy hasn`t picked up a second yellow for his involvement as well. Sometimes you get these decisions, sometimes you don`t.’
With the chance that fell to Miller shortly after Alfredo Morelos had opened up the scoring, he also hit the woodwork 30 seconds before Hibernian got their leveller and he explained.
‘I didn`t try to chip the keeper, I was actually just reacting and it was just trying to get some kind of contact towards the goal and it is not far away from going in. Another day it falls in. The one off the post Josh said he had maybe hit it a wee hard back to me but I never thought he did, I thought it was just a little bit behind me.’
He went on to say.
‘I still got a decent enough contact on it and I don`t know who it was who blocked it but even at that it can still sneak in like their second goal with a wee deflection. By then we could have been at least a couple up, it was enjoyable and I think everyone in the stadium would have been enjoying the stuff we were playing.
As players we definitely felt comfortable and in control of the game which is what the manager wants.’
Miller also spoke about a growing partnership with Morelos and he feels in time it will be very beneficial for the club.
‘Alfredo is coming on; he is a young lad who has made a big impact in the last two games getting three goals. It is about getting to know each other, that chance where I put the ball over the keeper I am looking for my partner to be there. That understanding will no doubt come but we have options in the front area with Alfredo, Eduardo and also Josh can go up there as well. We can change the way we want to play as well because we have decent width in the team too. It is a work in progress but it will definitely get stronger as the season goes on.’
