Liam Kelly admitted Rangers’ defensive ‘sloppiness’ undermined Hamza Igamane’s hat-trick heroics against Hibernian.
The goalkeeper felt his side played well for long periods of Sunday’s 3-3 draw at Easter Road but was left exasperated by the fact they squandered 2-0 and 3-2 leads.
Kelly was particularly disappointed for Moroccan forward Igamane, whose first hat-trick for the Ibrox club did not prove decisive.
“I was really annoyed that we didn’t come away with a victory after scoring three goals in any game,” he said. “Obviously, when you play for this club, if you score three goals, that should be more than enough to win the game.
“I was really annoyed at the defensive moments we gave away. It was sloppy from us. We should never concede three goals.
“When you play for this club, if you score three goals, you win the game. Defensively, in moments, we weren’t strong enough and it was not good enough. We should have won the game.
“I thought we played well a lot, but we didn’t defend well in moments. There was loads of good stuff, but nobody cares when you don’t win the game.
“I’m not even going to sit here and try to waste anybody’s time by talking about the good stuff, because nobody cares if you don’t get over the line and don’t get the victory.
“We need to look at the stuff we didn’t do well and make sure we cut that out.
“Part of the frustration is that we’ve not backed up that hat-trick for Hamza. He’s at the top end of the pitch, so it’s not so much on him.
“Obviously we defend as a collective and we attack as a collective, but I’m so disappointed and so angry that we’ve not managed to win the game. That’s my overriding emotion.”
Igamane was an unheralded summer signing from Moroccan club AS FAR but he has exceeded expectations by becoming Gers’ most prominent striker in recent months.
The 22-year-old’s Easter Road hat-trick took his tally for the season to 11 and manager Philippe Clement admitted he is ahead of schedule in his development.
“I get a lot of questions in the beginning of the season why we did that transfer,” said the Belgian. “So it’s good that people see why now, and it’s somebody who’s really hungry to become better.
“He’s made giant steps the last three, four months, technically, tactically for sure, and even more physically, to cope with the rhythm that we play here in the league, to cope also with getting more playing minutes, to be able to do that.
“So it’s exciting to see a young guy, who we knew had a lot of talent, but there was a lot of work to do it. I had a lot of contact with people in Morocco about that before we signed him, and everybody said he will need at least one year to be a starting XI player. So he’s taking faster steps than people predicted.”
