Monty delivers critical Rangers verdict as Hibs crash to Ibrox loss

'Justice done' after home goal ruled out by VAR, insists boss

Head in hands, Emi Marcondes sums up the Hibs mood at Ibrox.

Hibs boss Nick Montgomery rued his team’s inability to do the basics on both sides of the ball, as they lost to Rangers for the fourth time this season on an eventful afternoon at Ibrox. And Monty said the timing of the home side’s second goal, deep into first-half injury time just after Hibs had equalised, ultimately cost the visitors dearly.

Speaking after a 3-1 loss embellished by the loss of a third goal inside the closing six minutes, Montgomery said: "I thought in patches we played good football but not good enough today. Against quality opposition what you have you do is the basics well and stop crosses, pick up in the box and block shots at the edge of the box. We know they have quality players.

“We’re disappointed that we got back into the game and conceded in injury time, seven minutes of time added on, and it was minute five or six. You just want to get in at half-time 1-1 and give yourself a platform to build on for the second half, so to concede in the manner we did with a basic error in the box, marking the wrong side is disappointing because the team talk is different at half time.

"We needed goals to get back inti the game and for a 10-minute period we had a couple of good opportunities down the left-hand side with Myziane Maolida and Elie Youan. You have to punish them when you have those chances and we lacked the final pass, that final decision-making.

"We’re disappointed in the result, we could have done the basics better than we did today, but we have to move on, we have two big games coming up.”

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David Marshall saved a penalty from James Tavernier and, although Scott Wright buried the rebound, VAR ruled the goal out for encroachment by the Rangers attacker. Asked about the decision, Montgomery said: “You’re better not asking me. I’m probably disappointed to concede it but I’ve said that too often, so I’ll leave it to everybody else to give their opinion on it.

“It was another good save from David Marshall from Tavernier which isn’t easy, and thankful there was a foot in the box, so the goal was disallowed. That was a bit of justice. You need a bit of luck when you come places like this and that was maybe a bit we needed.

“To then get back in the game then concede just before half time, on the basis of that, we probably didn’t deserve anything from the game today. They’re a quality team, for me right now they’re probably the best team in the competition, they’ve got some quality players. You can’t leave them unmarked in the box or let them shoot from the edge of the box otherwise you’re going to get punished - and we did today.”