Brian Rice heaps praise on Hamilton young guns for shooting down Rangers

Brian Rice hailed his young side after Hamilton beat Rangers at Ibrox for only the second time in 94 years.

David Mayo scored the winner 11 minutes after half-time but youngsters like Lewis Smith, Jamie Hamilton and Shaun Want also shone as Steven Gerrard’s men were left stunned.

Rice, whose team climb off bottom spot following the 1-0 triumph, said: “It was a young team out there. There are one or two experienced boys with Blair Alston and the like.

“But to come here and keep a clean sheet gives you confidence. It also gives us three points we desperately needed.

“I can’t influence what happens elsewhere. Football is a crazy game. You can’t predict the results and it’s about what happens on the night.

“We were bottom of the league coming into tonight and most people would expect us to still be bottom. We’re not. That’s great credit to my lads.”

Shell-shocked Gerrard, meanwhile, admitted confidence levels have hit rock bottom in the Rangers dressing room.

The Ibrox boss was left struggling to come up with answers following his team’s latest disturbing collapse.

Gerrard had urged his players to set about proving they had the nerve required to win trophies at Rangers after seeing them exit the William Hill Scottish Cup with defeat to Hearts on Saturday.

But instead his squad faltered again as they suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time under his watch.

“Where do we start?” asked the exasperated Rangers boss, who has now watched his side drop 13 points across the last five weeks.

“We have just given three points away, it’s as simple as that. I’m not really sure I’ve got that many words to describe it.

“I didn’t think I could be more disappointed that I was after Hearts – but here I am, even more disappointed than I was a few days ago.

“I laid down the gauntlet before the game and will continue to do that. But I have a dressing room that’s shot of confidence.

“We have played ourselves into a rut and I’ve got a real tough, tough job to pick that up and improve it from here.

“Myself and my staff are flat because we are doing everything we can. We are trying to change formations and personnel, doing different things in training to try and lift and put confidence into them. We’ve got a lot to do – a big, big lot.”