JAMES Tavernier has urged his Rangers team mates to use the memory of Livingston's inflammatory post-match celebrations on Sunday as extra motivation to avoid bad results in future.
Tavernier, the Rangers captain, got involved in some ugly scenes following the final whistle at the Tony Macaroni Arena after his side had been beaten 1-0.
Declan Gallagher, the Livingston player, was booked by referee Craig Thomson for his role in the altercations that flared as the two teams made their way up the tunnel.
Steven Gerrard's men, who lost after conceding a first-half Dolly Menga goal, then had to listen to their opponents singing songs in the adjoining dressing room.
Gerrard stated afterwards that he had no problems whatsoever with the reaction to a victory that he believed Gary Holt's promoted side had merited.
His skipper believes that rival teams will deliberately attempt to provoke a reaction from Rangers and they must not allow themselves to be dragged into confrontations.
The right back is hopeful Rangers, who take on league leaders Hearts on Sunday, will be desperate to avoid similar painful experiences in the weeks and months ahead.
“Our players don’t need to be involved in anything like that," he said. "There will be players in certain teams who will try and 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 is going to happen. It is a big result for them to win against Rangers. Teams will celebrate how they celebrate, but we just have to use that as fuel to improve ourselves and to move on.”
Meanwhile, Tavernier has denied that Rangers have an issue with playing away from home despite failing to win their fourth league game on the road in the 2018/19 campaign.
“I wouldn't say there is an issue," he said. "We got a positive result away to Villarreal and we were unlucky not to win it out there. Aberdeen was an unfortunate one because they conceded right at the end with 10 men. I don’t think the issue is playing away.
“I think the issues on Sunday were that we weren’t clinical in the final third, we didn’t create enough and we didn’t test the keeper enough.
“There are no excuses over the pitch. We played some good football and kept possession of it. We moved it quite well, but when we got to the final third we had to do better.”
“It was a disappointing performance and we have dropped three points. You look at the three points we dropped against certain teams last season then these are the games where you need to win. On Sunday we just weren’t good enough in the final third.
“We have to be clever, too. A team like Livingston will play for set pieces and look for fouls in our half so they can put it in our box. We switched off at their goal and we can’t keep coming in after games conceding these type of goals.”
Defeat to Hearts this weekend would leave Rangers 11 points adrift after eight games and make it very difficult for them to mount a challenge for the Scottish title.
But Tavernier is only thinking about beating the capital club - who have won six times and drawn just once, against Livingston, in the league so far - for the first time this season.
“We have to play Hearts this weekend and if we take the three points then we move closer," he said. "We can only look at it game-by-game rather than looking deep into the fixtures.
"We have the Europa League on Thursday and we will be looking for a positive result in that then we have to look about taking maximum points off Hearts.
“There shouldn’t be a margin of error in any game. We should be looking to be going into every game to win it. It is a long season and we know if we can beat Hearts we will be closer to them. We just need to try and win every game and try to catch the teams at the top.”
First, though, Rangers will take on Rapid Vienna in their second Europa League group game at Ibrox on Thursday and try to build on their opening draw against Villarreal.
“You saw the cutting edge we had against Ayr United (in the Betfred Cup quarter-final last week) when we were attacking but on Sunday it wasn’t meant to be," said Tavernier.
“We know we have the players to create chances, but on Sunday, as a team, we weren’t quite good enough. We now have to look to the Europa League game.”
“It was a disappointing result. If we had won we would have continued our run but we ended up not scoring and then conceding from a set piece. These things can’t keep occurring.
“Rangers need to be a team that create chances in every single game that gives us the option to try and win games.”
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