'Mixed emotions': David Gray assesses Hibs' performance and has say on big Rangers incident

The Easter Road side put in a strong performance in Govan and were downed only by a wonder-strike from Tom Lawrence on 34 minutes. However, Mykola Kuharevych had his penalty saved in first-half stoppage time by Jack Butland, while substitute Dwight Gayle headed an excellent chance just wide on his debut with seven minutes remaining.

Hibs matched Rangers for large parts of the contest and Gray said: 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 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.”

On the match itself, Gray continued: “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 save 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.

“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.

“And that's a benchmark now that we need to then take into all the games moving forward. I've said now numerous occasions about the group getting stronger, getting fitter, a lot of new players gelling together, and I think you're starting to see evidence of that now there has been a progression in the performance levels. And we need to take that forward now. We can't just stop now - you need to keep pushing forward because our attention quickly changes towards Motherwell next week.”

Gray refused to criticise Kuharevych for his stuttered run-up, with his limp effort saved by Jack Butland. “There was a reason I was on the halfway line when penalties were taken!” said Gray. “I’m not going to criticise people for taking penalties, for being confident enough to put their hand up and want to take it.

“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.”

Gray’s opposite number Philippe Clement questioned whether a penalty should have been awarded for a John Souttar handball, saying that the infringement strayed into a “grey area”. On the incident, Gray added: “Listen, I think 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.

“Everyone 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. So I think I do think it is a 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.“