Smith fury at Hibs bench

WALTER SMITH blasted the Hibernian bench for their reaction to striker Nacho Novo’s X-rated tackle during Rangers’ Scottish Cup fifth-round replay win at Ibrox yesterday.

Novo was dismissed with 10 minutes to go for a two-footed lunge on Hibs’ Thierry Gathuessi and was quickly followed by Smith, who was dismissed for a furious rant in the technical area. The Rangers boss claims he did not have an issue with the red card, but he was unhappy with the way the Hibs camp conducted themselves.

Smith said: “I just felt the reaction of the Hibs bench was poor. Throughout the match they were calling for yellow cards and ordering-offs and I just felt that their reaction was a poor one.”

Chris Burke scored six minutes from half-time and set up a quarter-final meeting with Partick Thistle at Ibrox.