Hibs boss was eyeing a WIN at Ibrox as team chased equaliser against Rangers

Kuharevich sees his penalty saved. | SNS Group

Hibs boss David Gray believes his team could have gone onto record a famous Ibrox victory if they’d manage to convert one of their chances to equalise against Rangers. But he’s refused to criticise Mykola Kuharevich for his stutter-step penalty miss that denied the visitors a deserved leveller just on the stroke of half-time.

Admitting that his team need to be far more clinical in front of goal, Gray spoke about the “mixed emotions” he was feeling after an agonising 1-0 loss. Tom Lawrence’s wonder strike made the difference between the teams on Rangers’ first league game back at Ibrox, as the Light Blues extended their unbeaten run against the Hibees to 11 straight games.

Gray, asked about Kuharevich’s weak effort from the spot, said: “There was a reason I was on the halfway line when penalties were taken! I’m not going to criticise people for taking penalties, for being confident enough to put their hand up and want to take it.

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“You want your centre-forward to be confident enough to go and take a penalty. If he could take it again, I’m sure he’d put his foot through it. One thing I’d always say is ‘make the goalkeeper make a save’. If you can do that, then at times you need to credit the goalie.

“It’s a big moment in the game but the reaction from the players after that was fantastic, because they could very easily have gone under there – it’s almost like Rangers scoring a goal there, so credit to everyone.

“I thought if we had got one goal, we could have gone on and won the game. That’s how I felt when I was watching it.

“I felt that we created loads of chances, 18 shots, something like that. So I think that was good.

“But we also need to make sure that we try and take one of the chances - because you don't get as many as that when you come here.”

Reflecting on the performance, Gray added: “It’s mixed emotions for me, really. Quite frustrated. You never accept losing games, ever, but I think I can't fault the players' effort.

“The work rate the game plan that they stuck to, I thought it worked really well. But there are big moments in big games. And you know you get the opportunity with penalty …

“But even missing the penalty, I thought we reacted really well with that as well. It’s almost like Rangers getting a goal when their goalkeeper makes the save – so the reaction from the players was excellent.

“We got them in at half-time and then that led to the way we played in the second half as well.

“I think we fully expected Rangers to come out the traps flying after their positive result during the week in Europe, the first came back at Ibrox in front of 50,000. I know what it's like to come here, it's loud, it's intense.

“So we knew we had to weather that. I thought we did that really well, limited them to very few chances – and Lawrence’s goal is a worldie.

“Josef (Bursik) makes a really good say for us in the second half as well when the game became a bit stretched when we were going for it at that point, but I think then when you think about the chances we had as well, that's where the frustration comes in - because I honestly believe we deserve to get someone at least a point for that game.

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“You can't have five, six, seven chances to score a goal at times; you might only get one in games like this, so we’re definitely learning from every game that you play in.

“But there's a lot of positives that we're gonna take from that game as well. And I think the message to the players after the game was that, while we never accept losing, there were a lot of positives to take from it.”

While Rangers boss Philippe Clement argued that home defender Johnm Souttar shouldn’t have been penalised for the handball offence that led to the spot kick, following a VAR review, Gray insisted: “Listen, I think as soon as soon as your arm’s up, I don't like the term natural or unnatural, all these things. I think the ref’s got a really difficult job.

“I think it's a penalty because where it is on the pitch and where the ball's going. You might say the goalie could save it – but you don't know he's going to save it. A lot of things can happen.

“It doesn’t matter anyway; we miss the penalty. “I don’t know the letter of the law if it’s a red card, a yellow card, that then becomes another area again. It is a penalty, but you need to take the chance.

“We can only worry about things we can affect. We had the opportunity there from 12 yards to make it 1-1, which unfortunately we weren't able to do.”