Steven Gerrard’s men excel in victory over Celtic, but Rangers boss is staying cool

STEVEN GERRARD had called for his players to produced their A-game to beat Celtic yesterday.

He believes they did that – and more.

The Ibrox boss rated his men’s showing as A-plus, and he believes they’ve set a standard that can take the club back to the top.

Gerrard was clearly elated by his first Old Firm victory. His clenched fists gesture at the end showed that.

But he was quick to point there’s still hard work to do if Rangers are to win the title.

He said: “I said to them after the game: ‘If you keep delivering that level of performance, it’ll take you to the place we all want to get to’.

“That’s the level. That’s the best we’ve played from start to finish, and that’s the performance I’ve been looking for for the last six months.

“I knew it would come and the timing couldn’t have been any better.

“I asked the players to deliver an A-game – it was an A-plus.

“To a man, all over the pitch we, were better than Celtic.

“We won every single one-v-one. We were more aggressive, we created more and we could have won by a bigger margin.

“There’s still a lot of improvement and growing needed from us, but we need to take confidence and belief from that performance.

“Celtic are a fantastic team and there are other strong teams in the league pushing as well.

“It was a fixture we daren’t lose, because the gap would have been very damaging. A draw wasn’t so helpful either.

“So it’s the result we wanted and it puts us closer to where we want to be.

“But there’s no getting away from it, we still need to get better.”

Rangers are now level on points with Celtic at the top, but the Hoops have a game in hand.

Despite the lacklustre showing by Brendan Rodgers’ side, Gerrard is adamant they remain favourites to retain the championship.

He went on: “Listen, Celtic are still the favourites. They are still the team to catch and beat.

“I’m not going to sit and brag because we’ve beaten Celtic once.

“We have respect for the opposition and the other teams in the league.

“It’s a fantastic result for myself and the team, but this is about the supporters.

“You could feel the tension and the emotion in the air in the dying moments of the game, so I’m just pleased for them that they can enjoy it.”

The roar inside Ibrox that greeted the final whistle was quite incredible.

Nearly seven years of frustration was over for the Light Blue faithful – and they wanted everyone to know it.

Gerrard was delighted by the showing of a fan on the pitch.

Andy Halliday has had a rollercoaster career at Rangers but, for him, all the bad times will have been worth it for this result.

His boss said: “Andy was excellent. He deserves this moment.

“He’s been on the end of some really tough Old Firm results.

“He’s Rangers mad, he’s Rangers daft, and has been excellent for me.

“If I’ve called on him to start and do a job out of position, he’s done it.

“He earned the right to start this game.

“Andy had the most difficult job of our eleven in stopping a player in form, James Forrest, who is a top player.

“This is about the fans, but Andy is a fan.

“Ryan Kent’s performance, considering he’s been injured and hasn’t been around, was outstanding.

“Scott Arfield – he left every single thing he has in his body out there on the pitch.”

Despite praising his players to the skies, Gerrard will still look to invest in new players.

He added: “We need to try and strengthen in certain areas, so we won’t stand still and milk this moment.

“We’ll enjoy the win, have a rest and then get back on the horse and get ready to go again.”