STEVEN GERRARD pulled no punches with his wretched Rangers defence as St Johnstone inflicted the final blow in the Premiership title race.
Second half goals from Florian Kamberi and Joe Aribo looked to have salvaged a win at McDiarmid Park after Callum Hendry opened the scoring early on.
But Stevie May netted with ten minutes remaining as Rangers were once again hugely complicit in their own downfall on a day where Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic struggled badly.
Gerrard admitted Rangers won’t have a chance of overcoming Braga on Wednesday night if they defend as poorly as they did during a lamentable display in Perth and was forthright in his criticism once again.
He said: “There have been times this season where I have stood on the side and thought ‘fair play’ that is a real world class strike or a real good bit of play.
“Fair play, I hold my hand up. These goals, teams are not cutting us to pieces, it is not individual brilliance that is killing us.
“It is us, ourselves, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. It is my job to make sure that stops as quickly as I can. But I feel like I am playing the same record, certainly since we have come back after Christmas.
“I don’t think Thursday has got anything to do with it, this is St Johnstone and a really big three points at stake. The lads were incredible for half an hour on Thursday night.
“We still had issues defensively but with all due respect you are playing against top level players who are worth a lot of money. They are a good team, finished top of the group, have gone to Molineux and won.
“At times you have got to accept that teams will get some joy against you, but for St Johnstone to get the joy they got against us was just too easy.”
Gerrard was without first-choice left-back Borna Barisic against the Saints after he was forced off during the Europa League clash on Thursday night.
The Croatian took a blow to the kidneys at Ibrox but could recover in time to feature in the second leg of the last 32 clash.
Gerrard said: "He is a doubt right now. I am hopeful. The injury that he got is not a long-term one.
"It is one that is bruised, there is a bit of bleeding and I think he has been passing a bit of blood as well. We are hoping that he will have an outside chance for Wednesday.
"I have got some thinking to do and I have got to get the decision right because the team have given me something to think about now."
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