Captain James Tavernier’s Livingston reaction is full of disappointment towards his won team-mates.
Not only at the result either. The Gers captain has also taken to the media today to discuss the post-match sparks that flared afterwards.
Certain Livingston players were immediately in Rangers’ faces right after the win. Ricki Lamie and Declan Gallagher of Livi were the main culprits. Both could be seen trying to goad the Rangers players and subsequently supporters before walking off the pitch.
The likes of Borna Barisic, Daniel Candeias, and Andy Halliday were all involved post-match.
Yet Tavernier has come out today and stated that his team-mates shouldn’t be getting involves with post-match scuffles. Speaking in the Daily Record, Tavernier reflected on the post-match scenes and performance at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
“Teams will celebrate how they celebrate but we just have to use that as fuel to improve ourselves and move on. Our players don’t need to be involved in anything like that.
“There will be players in certain teams who will try to wind us up. We can’t be seen to be reacting to that sort of behaviour. It is something we need to stay away from. It’s going to happen. It is a big result for them against Rangers.
“You look at the three points we dropped against certain teams last season. These are the games we need to win. We weren’t clinical in the final third, we didn’t create enough and we didn’t test the keeper enough.”
The words of a leader
Tavernier speaks like a true captain in every sense here. Whilst he’ll always try and deflect his team-mates away from fighting, he acknowledged how big the result was for Livingston.
Regardless, it was good to see the likes of Halliday standing up for the club in the face of overzealous celebrations. Different personalities will react differently to situations such as these. Therefore, you can’t turn around and criticise the likes of Halliday for his actions.
Whilst it’s clear that Tavernier would rather keep his team-mates out of scenarios like this, he must be pleased with the passion involved from Halliday. Rangers have lacked that kind of fight for too long in recent seasons, and certainly didn’t show it on the pitch on Sunday.
The Rangers captain was a particular underperformer and was the first to recognise how badly Steven Gerrard’s side performed.
Moving away from the Livingston contest, Tavernier is starting to grow into the armband nicely. Committing his future to the club last month, the Englishman is embracing the challenges he’s receiving as captain.
He’ll only grow into it more in the future, but he’s showing terrific level-headedness since becoming the leader. Reactions like his one to Sunday show that he has strong humility in him and an understanding of the standards of a Rangers captain.
