Steven Gerrard has hit back at Hibs Ryan Porteous after the centre-half claimed that Rangers skipper, James Tavernier, was a “bad loser” for not wanting to shake hands after the game at Easter Road, as reported by The Scottish Sun.
Aside from the very small matter that the game was a draw, Porteous has a history of trying to maim players from across the SPFL with the Light Blues in particular seeming to get a little extra attention for his particular “style” of defending.
Do opposition players get away with murder against Rangers?
Yes
No
His modus operandi is to “rough” players up off the ball or to leave something on opponents after winning the ball cleanly, last season there were two great examples of the Scotland Under-21 international spending too much time on the dark arts rather than concentrating on the game, one of which was being too busy body checking Jermain Defoe off the ball to notice that he’d left someone else unmarked and free to score, the other, is the one that Gerrard refers to.
When asked about the incident at the end of the match when tempers frayed, he said:
“I think he was saying that Tav’s a bad loser which I think is a bit cheap coming from him.
“He got sent off for a really bad tackle when he was losing 3-0 against us here last season.
“I don’t agree with that or the argument.”
So, Porteous was put back in his box by the Gers gaffer, but you can bet any money that next weekend when the Easter Road outfit take on Celtic that you won’t see Hibs trying to get away with things off the ball nor the officials letting them get away with it – they do after all “know what’s at stake this season“.