Judge Rangers’ mentality at end of season – Souttar

Centre-half John Souttar says fans are entitled to question Rangers’ mentality after they ceded a two-goal lead to Celtic – but has asked to be judged at the end of the season.

Two Youssef Chermiti goals capped a dominant first-half performance from Rangers, but Celtic hit back through Kieran Tierney and Reo Hatate after the break.

It means Rangers have drawn four of their last six games at a crucial point in the season, are six points behind leaders Heart of Midlothian and could drop to third place on Wednesday if Celtic defeat Aberdeen.

“Of course that’s going to be the question,” Souttar replied when asked about Rangers’ mentality to get over the line.

“What I can say is that we need to be judged at the end of the season because there’s nine games left and, if I was a fan looking just now, I’d be asking the same questions. It’s natural.

“But, for me, we’ve got to be really clean in the next nine games. We’ve got to stand up and we’ve got to win and we can’t afford slip-ups.

Rangers were also accused of slacking off in the draw with Motherwell at Fir Park, when they conceded late on despite their hosts being reduced to 10 men.

Dropped points away to bottom side Livingston – who have won once all season – after the rousing win over Hearts at Ibrox also halted the momentum of Danny Rohl’s side.

Souttar says Rangers need to replicate the level they showed in the first half of the Old Firm derby across the final nine games of the league campaign.

“The crowd was up, we were playing in their half, fast, aggressive football and we were the same against Hearts at home,” the 29-year-old Scotland and former Hearts defender said.

“But we’ve got to do it for the full game. There’s no point doing it for 45 to 50 minutes.

“We’ve got to keep that going for the full game and, yes, there’ll be periods where we can’t do that the full game.”

Celtic are also Rangers’ next opponents, in Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final, again at Ibrox.