It was another Ibrox defeat, another controversial Rangers penalty, and another disappointing performance from Hibs at the weekend. Myziane Maolida added another goal to his tally but the game will almost certainly be remembered more for Nectar Triantis’ comedy free-kick routine, which inadvertently felled both Joe Newell and Will Fish, than it will for the Comoros internationalist's strike.

It took until the 20th minute for Rangers to get their penalty this week, with VAR drawing the referee’s attention to a collision between Triantis and Rangers’ John Souttar. To say the collision was innocuous would be putting it mildly – the Hibs defender had leapt for the ball and was on his way down as Souttar appeared to run into him. Referee David Dickinson was well placed to see the incident in real-time, and it’s a mystery to me that VAR thought he’d made a clear and obvious error in not awarding a spot kick.

As it happened, David Marshall denied James Tavernier again, having saved his spot-kick in the Scottish Cup tie at Easter Road last month. As with that save, Rangers were first to the rebound as Scott Wright fired home but the Gers attacker was found to have encroached into the penalty area and a free kick was given to Hibs after a lengthy VAR review – the total time taken to review both the penalty award and the encroachment would see seven minutes added to the first half, which proved significant in the end.

Triantis picked up a yellow card for his troubles, while Souttar made a full recovery to see out the rest of the match; Martin Boyle no doubt seeing the irony in the incident being punished with a spot kick as he made his return from the concussion he suffered following a challenge by the very same Rangers player at Easter Road last month.

Triantis was one of three Hibs players booked on Saturday, picked up from seven fouls given against us. Rangers also picked up three bookings, but from twice the number of fouls. A curious stat over the last two ties between the sides is that Hibs have picked up five yellow cards (and two reds) from a total of 15 fouls, while Rangers have had four yellows from 25 fouls. It makes you think…

Hibs may still face further sanctions from the fallout of the incident after a playful but pointed, ‘Who had 20 minutes?’ tweet from the club when announcing the award of the penalty kick. Fair play to Hibs’ social media admin; the tweet went down a storm with the club's supporters who, I think, were happy to see the club refusing to take these things lying down.

The referee, however, wasn’t the difference between the sides on Saturday. Rangers went ahead shortly after that penalty kerfuffle when Tavernier had the freedom of Hibs’ penalty box to volley past Marshall.

Hibs drew level in first-half injury-time when a brilliantly worked move saw Maolida link up with Elie Youan to beat Jack Butland from close range. It should have seen Hibs go into the break well in the game on level terms however, as has been the case throughout the season, we managed to shoot ourselves in the foot by allowing Cyriel Dessers a free header right in front of goal on the stroke of halftime.

Hibs started the second half brightly without troubling Rangers, and it wasn’t until Nick Montgomery made the first of his substitutions that Rangers took a grip of the game, and from that point, the outcome felt inevitable.

Hibs rounded off a miserable afternoon by conceding a late third and had Marshall to thank for several saves to keep the score down.

Famous Five revamp

On a brighter note, Hibs showcased plans for the Famous Five revamp on Monday night, and I have to say they look fantastic. I’ve been very fortunate to have experienced the Pioneers and the Tornadoes hospitality experience over the last couple of seasons, and the Famous Five upgrade looks like it’ll match those high standards.

Hibs are confident of selling it out and this will bring much-needed income to the club.

Must-win game against Saints

We now look ahead to Saturday’s match with St Johnstone, which is firmly in the ‘must-win’ category for Hibs to achieve their top-six target which would then put the club in a position to push for a European spot in the post-split fixtures.

Craig Levein will be going all out to spoil Hibs’ day and it’s vital that we defend with more determination and concentration than we did at Ibrox.

If we can produce a similar level of performance to the one which saw us sweep Livingston aside in our last match at Easter Road, then I’m confident we can take all three points to set us up for another must-win fixture at Fir Park next weekend.