Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Aidan Smith

Aston Villa fans aim brutal chant at Steven Gerrard during Liverpool clash

Aston Villa fans aimed chants at former Rangers boss Steven Gerrard during their 1-1 draw with Liverpool this afternoon.

The point lifted them into seventh place in the Premier League and above Tottenham – meaning a victory against Brighton in their final game next week would earn Unai Emery’s side a European place.

Fortunes have turned for Villa since Emery took over at the club following Gerrard's sacking in October last year.

Gerrard guided Villa to a 14th placed finish in his first season in charge but was axed after just 12 games the following campaign due to relegation form.

Villa fans were quick to point this out as they headed to Anfield today and the away support could be heard singing "we'd be top if it wasn't for Gerrard".

Meanwhile, Michael Beale will dig deep into his Rangers squad for the trip to Hibernian on Sunday but he is determined to build on the recent upswing in form.

The Light Blues, guaranteed to finish runners-up to cinch Premiership champions Celtic for a second successive season, go into the game on the back of a morale-boosting 3-0 win over their Old Firm rivals at Ibrox last weekend.

That first win of the season over the Hoops followed a 1-0 home win over Aberdeen, after losing to both of those teams in the previous two matches.

Defender Connor Goldson is a doubt for the Easter Road game and could be added to a lengthy injury list which includes Borna Barisic, Ben Davies, Ryan Kent, Antonio Colak, Kemar Roofe, Tom Lawrence, Steven Davis and Filip Helander while on-loan attacker Malik Tillman is now back at Bayern Munich with a hamstring problem which has ended his season.

The Gers boss said: “In terms of the young players, we’ve lost Bailey Rice and Zak Lovelace to international duty with Scotland and England Under-17s, at the Euros.

“So there will be one or two others get an opportunity.

“There’s players that have been injured for big parts of the season that need an opportunity as well and we are going to need everyone.

“We probably have 16 players to get us through the last three games next week: Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday.

“We want to end the season well. We know the teams we are playing this week are still in the hunt for European places, so they are not slowing down.

“It is important for us that after two home wins against Aberdeen and Celtic that we back that up this weekend.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.