Archie Knox has admitted that Rangers’ penalties at Hamilton were soft, but claimed nobody will care at the end of the season.
Rangers looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw at Hamilton on Sunday. Steven Boyd had cancelled out Ryan Kent’s classy opener, and it looked like it was going to be an incredible five away matches in the league without a win.
But Accies defender Alex Penny made two clumsy errors to gift Gerrard’s men a pair of late penalties. James Tavernier, as always, did the business from the spot before Morelos hammered home a late fourth to seal the rout.
Question marks have been raised over the last 48 hours or so about whether either penalty should’ve been awarded. Despite the letter of the law showing that they both should’ve been given, that hasn’t stopped widespread debate over them.
Knox did admit that he felt the penalties were soft, but has informed Gerrard that nobody will care if they go on to win the league thanks to them.
“It was the same at Liverpool, it’s the same at Celtic. You have to win. Sometimes how you win doesn’t really matter.
“Take the Hamilton game, for example. They equalise and for a while I thought that Hamilton might win, as Rangers have been poor away from home. But they got a win albeit the penalties were soft.
“Nobody will remember that if they finish first, or second for that matter.”
Care for youth
Knox also went on to explain how effective Gerrard has been with the youth side. Touching on his experience with previous managers, Knox feels Gerrard has a similar level of care for what comes through the development system as the greats.
“In older days, Alex, Walter and Jim McLean watched the youth games. A lot of that doesn’t happen now but I know for a fact that Gerrard is interested in what is coming through, what is happening at the academy and he’s been taking some of these lads into the first-team training.
“Maybe this is because he saw how it worked at Liverpool. Of course, this is how he got his chance. If a kid shows their worth then they will get a chance. It’s all you can ask for.’
Gerrard has shown that he has no worries about throwing young players into the mix at Ibrox. The likes of Glenn Middleton has been given an opportunity in the Rangers squad this season.
The Rangers manager also made an unusual but promising decision to set up a match between the Gers youths and Spartak Moscow. This will happen before the senior sides meet on Thursday night.
There’s a clear desire from Gerrard to make sure the youth players at Rangers are growing in the right manner. It isn’t surprising to see that his hands-on nature with the younger players is similar to that of Knox’s past colleagues.
The Gers support certainly wouldn’t mind if their manager also started emulating their success in the future.
