RANGERS manager Steven Gerrard last night praised Greek referee Tasos Sidiropolous for his performance in the Europa League play-off match against Alashkert at Ibrox.

And Gerrard, whose team were reduced to 10 men when the match official ordered off John Lundstram in the first-half, admitted that his players need to maintain their discipline.

Former Sheffield United midfielder Lundstram, who moved to Glasgow on a free transfer in the summer, was red carded for a second bookable offence just before half-time.

Asked about the incident, the Liverpool great said: “I haven’t looked at it back just yet. But what I would say is that I thought the referee had a good game. We didn’t have any complaints.

“One thing you need in Europe is discipline. We have spoken on so many occasions about how many times as a team we have let ourselves down and shot ourselves in the foot when it comes down to discipline.

“Other people have to turn into superhumans and put their capes on because we lacked discipline in the first-half.

“At this level you have to play with discipline and try and stay on the pitch. Otherwise people have to go above and beyond. Moving forward again I have to talk about discipline. We do it an awful lot.

“Look, the players know, I can tell they know, I know them very well. We can gve them the information, we can be honest, but I think where we are right now it needs to come from the leadership group.

“We need to move forward, we need to be united, we need to get back to our level sharpish. It can happen really quickly if everyone gets focused and we move along together.”