Steven Gerrard warned Rangers they need to develop a ruthless streak in front of goal before their wastefulness wrecks their Scottish Premiership title hopes.
The Light Blues were two goals up and cruising inside 20 minutes at the Foys Stadium but some wasteful finishing meant Hamilton got off easy with a 2-0 defeat.
Ianis Hagi grabbed the opener ahead of a James Tavernier goal but the Romanian wasted three more openings to run up a bigger scoreline.
Kemar Roofe, Brandon Barker and Ryan Jack were also guilty but it was another faultless display for the Ibrox defence – who have now become the first Scottish side to open a top-flight campaign with six clean sheets since 1906.
Rangers now sit three points clear at the top but Gerrard is still concerned about their lack of cutting edge.
He said: “I thought we were excellent to go one and two up but then I thought we became really wasteful.
“Our play up to a certain point was outstanding.
“But if you were a player in the top half of the pitch you should have got a goal or an assist.
“I thought Hamilton were there for a stronger scoreline. We just didn’t reward our good play with that last bit of quality.
“If you look at our results this season, there has been three or four times that I’m going away thinking we should have got more goals today. At some point that might come back to bite us.
“That tells me we still need to get better. We still need to improve, keep working on the training pitch and if we can add that one or two bits of quality through the squad.
“It’s not a concern but it’s certainly an area we need to work on.
“We had three or four really strong counter-attacks where we could have rewarded ourselves with more goals.
“If there’s one small complaint today is we should have got more goals and been more ruthless.”
Alfredo Morelos – dropped entirely for last week’s win over Kilmarnock – was back in the squad after showing Gerrard an improved attitude around the training ground.
But the Lille target was left on the bench and Gerrard admits he has no idea what the future holds for Morelos.
Asked if the Colmobian would still be a Rangers player following the international break, he said: “I don’t know. That’s a very difficult question for me to answer.
“I’m taking each day as it comes in terms of Alfredo. He’s trained really well this week but I really can’t control what other teams will do.
“All I can do is manage the situation on a daily basis.
“At the moment, where we stand right now, I expect to see him after the international break.”
Accies boss Brian Rice was disappointed his side did not put up more of a fight.
He said: “First half we were a bit off the pace and showed too much respect to Rangers. We gave their players too much time and space to play around about us.
“When we go up tighter against them second half we acquitted ourselves really well.
“We could have capitulated at 2-0 but we didn’t. We hung in there, kept going and it’s great credit to them for sticking at it.”
