Danny Rohl issues title reminder to Hearts-Celtic, points to Rangers fan banner and slams penalty decision
Rangers boss refuses to call it quits despite late Motherwell defeat at Ibrox
Rangers head coach Danny Rohl has reminded rivals Hearts and Celtic that the title race is not over despite his side’s 3-2 home defeat to Motherwell on Sunday afternoon.
The Rangers boss watched his side claw back a two-goal deficit in the second-half thanks to goals from Youssef Chermiti and Nico Raskin, but were dealt a hammer blow in the final minute of the game when Emmanuel Longelo’s strike took a wicked deflection off Emmanuel Fernandez to hand Motherwell all three points in Glasgow.
The result sees Rangers fall to third in the table with just four games to go, but Rohl has refused concede the title and revealed why he is confident his team can still emerge victorious in the month ahead.
“But the most important thing is that it’s not over. It’s really not over,” said Rohl. “I’m disappointed, there’s no question over that. Let’s talk about the second 45 minutes where we had a lot of opportunities to turn it again. We could have won this game 4-2 or 5-2 even if the first half wasn’t what we wanted. We changed something and it had a great impact. Look, this is football - that’s why sometimes we love the sport and sometimes we hate it.
“I saw the picture from our fans, the flag saying ‘Keep Believing’. This is the right time to lift this slogan with emotion. Really, we will keep believing. Otherwise, it’s difficult. We have four more finals, four games to go and it’s our job. We weren’t concentrated on our front-foot defending in the first half. That’s the reason why they sometimes had an overload on the centre.
“We were a little bit too slow in the last line to push up and mark them. We had to be more aggressive but it was difficult. But it’s also part of the story that Motherwell were really effective. I don’t know how many big chances they had, even in the first half? I think I said this many times, we need more clean sheets, because it makes our job really hard to come back. We need a lot of energy to come back.
“I see different kinds of goals, it's not always the same goals, which kind we conceded. I'm disappointed with the first and the third goals conceded today, both similar with the transition moments. This is difficult, of course, at 3-2. We gambled in this moment, we tried to make the 3-2, and then they made a quick attack, and finally there was a deflection.”
A frustrated Rohl also slammed referee Kevin Clancy’s decision not to award his side a penalty when Djeidi Gassama was fouled on the edge of the area. The match official awarded a free-kick and VAR opted not to intervene, and the 36-year-old boss believes his side were denied a clear penalty.
“The foul on Gassama is for me clearly on the line,” said Rohl. “His foot is inside (the box) but they didn’t look. Maybe I’m wrong but please look back and you’ll see I’m right with this. But I don’t want to make excuses, we still had enough chances to turn it. We had so many opportunities alone in front of the goalkeeper. This is what I take from this game. We can turn things still in the right direction. We can make adjustments with impact players. All of those things give me more than belief that we can do it.
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