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Chris Sutton was not pleased with Dujon Sterling as Rangers and Hearts played out a 2-2 draw in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday.
Derek McInnes did not receive the warmest of welcomes as he returned to Tynecastle, but he will be delighted that he did not leave the stadium empty-handed.
A late equaliser from Olwethu Makhanya saw the Light Blues secure a point, although they did have a chance to steal a last-gasp win.
Sterling had a chance to win the game in what was the final kick of the game. However, he failed to make the desired contact on the ball to slot it into the back of the net. There, it looked harder to miss than to score, but his effort went straight into the hands of Beau Reus.
While a draw was arguably a fair result as the Gers struggled to control proceedings, they would have liked to win the match, especially as Celtic dropped points at home to Dundee United. Sterling may struggle to get this miss out of his head, and Sutton did not mince his words on Sky Sports.
The right-back found himself in the right position as Findlay Curtis received the ball in acres of space on the left wing. He then did a few stepovers before playing an inch-perfect ball into the box. All the English defender needed to do was head the ball home, but he completely misjudged the delivery, and it hit his body before going straight into the keeper’s hands.
Sutton said: “Why Sterling misses that? How he misses that? I don’t know. That’s an unbelievable miss.”
Defensively, there were aspects of Sterling’s performance that were impressive, as he won both of his attempted tackles and made three clearances. However, he lost more ground duels than he won and achieved just a 33 per cent success rate with his aerial duels.
His pass accuracy in the opposition half was only 67 per cent, which is nowhere near good enough for a right-back in a team that’s looking to win the title. Going forward, too, he did not offer much and struggled to complete a single take-on in the game.
McInnes may look to start Kosta Nedeljkovic for the Aberdeen clash as he could look to give Sterling a breather.