STEVEN GERRARD saw Rangers lose top spot in the Premiership for the second time this season but insisted he was proud of their performance in the goalless draw with Hibernian.

The Light Blues are now a point behind Old Firm rivals Celtic in the title race after they couldn’t capitalise on their dominance at Easter Road.

Gerrard lost the services of Scott Arfield after the midfielder was forced off at the break with a hamstring injury and faces an anxious wait to discover the extent of the damage.

But there were positives for the Ibrox boss to take as he turns his attentions to the trip to St Johnstone on Sunday.

Gerrard said: “The performance was there, we were excellent for the majority of the game. So I was really pleased and proud of the performance.

“I was disappointed with the result obviously because we’ve been so dominant and created the best chances in the first half, the best chances in the second half.

“We’ve done everything but find that breakthrough. So it’s a little bit mixed. I’m pleased with the performance but not the result.

“We’ll certainly analyse that, we certainly want to improve on that ruthlessness in front of goal, not just tonight, always.

“But sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say we’ve found a sub keeper tonight who has come on and bailed his team out on probably four or five occasions.

“You can’t be too critical of players, we’re creating chances, we’re getting really good opportunities to score.

“The reason we were top of the league before the game was probably Alfredo (Morelos) and he’s the one who had the chances tonight.

“So we are not critical, we’re really pleased with the performance and the game plan, we asked the players to defend perfectly and that was nearly there.

“And going forward we caused them all kinds of problems, we have ran their defence ragged all over the place.

“Neil Lennon said to me coming off we were outstanding, as a manager I can’t ask more of my players.”

Gerrard played down calls for a penalty in the closing stages after Mark Milligan motioned his arm towards a Morelos shot inside the area.

But the 38-year-old was more vocal about a lunging challenge from defender Ryan Porteous as he picked up a yellow card for scything down Lassana Coulibaly.

Gerrard said: “I was upset with Porteous’ tackle because he hasn’t tried to play the ball. The ball has gone and he’s come in high towards the knee.

“Look, he’s a young lad in Scotland and I don’t like talking about it after the game, but the reality is that the ref was three yards away and that was a very, very dangerous tackle.

“In my book, in Neil’s book in anyone’s book that was a dangerous tackle.”