Steven Gerrard warns Rangers' Scottish Premiership title hopes on the line after Livingston loss

GLASGOW: Rangers manager Steven Gerrard warned his side could forget about winning the Scottish Premiership title if they suffered many more repeats of Sunday's shock 1-0 loss away to Livingston.

Defeat left Rangers in sixth place and meant they were now eight points adrift of leaders Hearts just seven games into the season.

Craig Levein's table-toppers from Edinburgh travel to Ibrox next weekend and former England midfielder Gerrard has demanded a response from the Glasgow giants.

"Hearts was a must-win game whether we won, drew or lost today," he said. "They are the team to chase right now, they have come out of the blocks flying.

"It is still early on in the season so we can recover from a result like this like we recovered from the Old Firm loss. But this can't keep happening.

"When we come and play teams like Livingston we have to try and take maximum points, otherwise we won't be in the title race."

Promoted Livingston moved up to third with a victory that handed Gerrard just his second defeat in 18 games as Rangers boss.

Dolly Menga's 34th-minute goal was enough to separate the sides as Livingston moved level on points with second-placed Hibernian, who are ahead on goal difference.

Rangers have yet to record an away league win under Gerrard this season.

Before they face Hearts, Gerrard's side have a Europa League match at home to Austrian side Rapid Vienna on Tuesday.

Victory saw Livingston extend their unbeaten league run to six games, with coach Gary Holt yet to lose since taking over last month from Kenny Miller.

Their decisive goal against Rangers came from a free-kick with Declan Gallagher and Scott Robinson involved before Menga scored from inside the box to the delight of home fans at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

"We were nowhere near good enough in the final third," said Gerrard. "We could be playing for another 180 minutes and wouldn't look like scoring."

Meanwhile Holt insisted that for all Livingston had made a fine start to the season, avoiding relegation remained the priority.

"I'll enjoy tonight like everyone else," he said. "But until we are mathematically safe, that's when I'll start looking at what else we could achieve.

"Make no bones about it, we were the favourites to go down.

"We are still the favourites. We could lose seven games in a row. It's early days."