Rangers boss Danny Rohl refused to pin the blame on keeper Jack Butland after four minutes of madness cost them at Tynecastle.
The Ibrox gaffer watched his side fall a massive 12 points behind Hearts in the Premiership with a 2-1 defeat in Gorgie. And Butland played his part in both Jambos goals, scored by Stuart Findlay and Lawrence Shankland.
His slack pass led to Gers giving away a cheap corner, from which the defender bulleted home a header. Then shortly after that, Butland made a mess of trying to save the Hearts captain’s shot at his near post.
It was a disastrous spell for Rangers and their goalie just before half-time as Derek McInnes’ men took control. The Jam Tarts could have extended their lead after the break – with Shankland missing to gilt-edged opportunities – before Youssef Chermiti scored a consolation goal at the death.
Afterwards, Rohl backed Butland but claimed Rangers were the architects of their own downfall. He said: “Always in football, if you make a mistake as a winger or centre-forward the consequences are not so huge. But if you make it in the last line or from the goalkeeper with his decision making, there’s a big impact. Jack has got us a lot of points. Of course we’re not happy with the result but I would never put it (on him).
“That was a big message to my group – we shouldn’t complain about each other in such a moment. It’s about the reaction next weekend. How we got to the set-play (for Hearts’ first goal), it was decision making. Then we know as a team that Hearts have scored a lot from set-plays, it’s a strength of theirs. I saw a team from our side today who – until 1-0 – were better.
“We were really good in the game and unlucky with a tight offside decision. But then we had a four minute spell and it cost us something here today. It’s really tough to accept.
“We know in such a big game we need to be 100 percent in every situation. How we got to 1-0 down, it was unnecessary to lose a ball in our own half. Until that moment we were aggressive, organised and took their strength off them.
“We missed a big opportunity today and it’s hard to take. I’ve spoken about taking steps. Today was more of a sidestep than a step forward. We spoke before about ‘if’. But football is not about ‘ifs’, it’s about results and today we couldn’t win. It’s obviously opened again (the gap) which is tough. My team tried and put a lot of effort in but at 2-0 it’s not so easy to come back.”
Rangers thought they’d grabbed a lead early on when Bojan Miovski tapped home from a corner but VAR ruled it out for offside. Nico Raskin also missed a golden chance before Findlay broke the deadlock at the other end. It was Rohl’s first league defeat as Ibrox gaffer and he was left frustrated at full-time.
He said: “There is still a long way to go and in the next three weeks we have big games. It’s important that I see in my group that we’re competitive and that we can take something. But this was similar to some of our European games where we couldn’t win 50/50 situations. We had to be more clinical and have better decision making.
“If we do that, we’ll take more points in the future. The conceded goals today was not about shape, it was about how we acted in key moments. In the end, it’s a 2-1 defeat and we have to learn from it. In some moments, we weren’t at 100 percent and we lost the game. But it was unnecessary.
“In the second half, it was a different game. We had to open up and take more risks. Hearts are good in this situation and big respect to them. But for the first 40 minutes, we were good. Just 20 minutes before 1-0, we had a big opportunity to score and maybe we’d have been having a different press conference. We have to keep going, show a reaction and carry on.”
