Gerrard: Porteous tackle could have ended Aribo's season

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has slammed Ryan Porteous for his red card challenge on Joe Aribo, saying the player has a history of dangerous tackles.

Porteous was sent off half an hour into Rangers’ clash with Hibs at Ibrox after a tackle on the Rangers midfielder that brought an instant red card from referee Nick Walsh. Hibernian were a goal ahead at that point through Kevin Nisbet, though goals from Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos sealed three points for the home side.

Gerrard was not impressed by Porteous, saying the Hibs defender endangered his fellow professional and that the 22-year-old has to learn.

“It’s a red card,” the former Liverpool captain said. “100%.

“As someone who knows a thing or two about bad tackles, because I’ve made a few myself, it doesn’t come much worse than that.

“To go in at that speed, with that force, at that height, if he had connected with Joe Aribo then Joe’s season would have been done, for sure.

“This kid done one very similar on Lassana Coulibaly a little while ago and he obviously hasn’t learnt his lesson. Hopefully he learns moving forward because he’s let Jack down today and his staff and his players.

“At 1-0 up, if he wants to, he can play the ball. But he decides to go a foot over the ball and he’s running at some speed. Thankfully it wasn’t full contact otherwise Joe Aribo would have been in trouble.”

Hibs head coach Jack Ross said he could understand why Walsh had dismissed Porteous, but said that his player had to just “smooth out” that part of his game.

He said: “At the time I didn’t think it was a foul because I was on the far side of the pitch. I’ve watched it again, from a couple of angles similar to what I thought at the time but from the angle behind the goals it doesn’t look great.

“I think from what Ryan does in going to ground and tackling at that speed, he gives the match official a decision to make.”

“That’s the bit he needs to improve, that split-second decision making. I think he has made big improvements on it but he needs to continue to do so.

“He needs to smooth off those rough edges that, at the moment, he needs to do to go from being a very good young player to be a top player.”