JACK ROSS insists he won't look to take the aggression out of Ryan Porteous despite his costly sending off in the defeat to Rangers.

The defender was shown a straight red card by referee Nick Walsh after lunging into a challenge with Joe Aribo during the first half at Ibrox.

Hibernian were in control of the game at that stage after an early Kevin Nisbet header saw them put Steven Gerrard's side on the back foot in the top of the table clash.

But the moment of madness from Porteous ultimately came back to cost the visitors as Kemar Roofe and Alfredo Morelos won it at the end of an enthralling encounter.

Ross said: "As it happened I didn't even think it was a foul but that was from my view.

"I then watched it and the first couple of angles I had the same opinion, from the angle behind the goal it doesn't look great.

"But what I don't quite understand is that the match officials view must be the same, he is not watching it from behind the goals.

"But I think Ryan gives him a decision to make. I don't necessarily agree with the decision but I can understand why it's given.

"As I said about not necessarily absolutely agreeing with the decision but understanding why it was given, that's one of the things within it,

is that split-second moment when you choose to go to ground or to go in to the challenge in that manner, that is the thing from it.

"I am not going to tell Ryan not be aggressive but we have worked a lot in the last year and a half and I think he has made big improvements in his decision-making and you are right, he doesn't need to go to ground, he has put himself in a good position, he has read the situation well.

"I know he will get criticism and stick and there will be loads out to vilify him but I think Ryan is brilliant player, a top centre half in this country, he has an aggression about his game but you need that as a defender or certainly you used to have."

The defeat at Ibrox was the first that Hibernian have suffered in the Premiership this term as they missed the chance to move above Rangers and Hearts heading into the international break.

But Ross can take plenty of heart from the performance of his side as they held their own before the late efforts from Roofe and Morelos that won it for Rangers.

Ross said: "The first 30 minutes I thought were excellent, really good and deserved to be ahead and were in a good place in the game.

"We came here with belief we could win here and we gave a performance in the first half hour that showed that.

"The sending off was the defining moment of the game, not necessarily because you can't win it from there but 60 minutes on that pitch against a good team is tough.

"I am angry at the manner of the goals we conceded, I told the players that.

"Because we are a good team who are very close to being a very good team and that's the last jump we need to take to continue this progress.

"Of course it is [frustrating] because there are moments in games whether it is penalty kicks awarded against you or you or sending off etc that can change games.

"As I mentioned earlier it doesn't mean we don't believe we can win the game from that point but it makes the game a lot harder.

"I am angry and frustrated because we came here believing we could win and we showed in that first half-hour that we could."