TOM Rogic has taken a swipe at Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha following his altercation with Celtic captain Scott Brown – by stating that Brendan Rodgers would never get involved in a touchline bust-up with a rival player.

Caixinha confronted Brown as he made his way off the pitch at half-time at Ibrox on Saturday after taking exception to the midfielder’s challenge on his striker Alfredo Morelos shortly before.

The irate Portuguese coach, whose side lost the game 2-0 to fall eight points behind the Ladbrokes Premiership leaders after just seven games, was shoved aside by Leigh Griffiths and then ushered away by Ryan Jack.

Rogic, who scored the first goal early in the second half, believes the predicament the Rangers team, who are now in fifth place in the league table, are in led to his reaction and insisted that Rodgers wouldn’t have acted in such a manner.

“I don’t know what the Rangers manager saw,” he said. “It’s up to him, but you certainly wouldn’t see our manager getting involved in anything like that. I think that maybe says a little bit about their situation and where they are.”

Caixinha, who revealed on Friday that he was keeping a list of refereeing decisions which go for and against Rangers after growing increasingly concerned about the number of bad calls by match officials in games involving his side, was scathing about Brown afterwards.

But asked if he thought the Celtic skipper had crossed the line with his challenge on Cardoso and other Rangers players during the derby match, Rogic replied: “No, I don’t think so. Scott is a good leader.”

Rogic might have opened the scoring but the Australian forward’s fine personal performance, and indeed that of every one of Brendan Rodgers’ players, was once again overshadowed by that of their central midfielder and skipper Brown.

The 32-year-old snuffed out Rangers attacks, won balls in the air, distributed possession intelligently and didn’t stop running once for 90 whirlwind minutes.

Few in the 50,116-strong crowd, not least his team-mate, were in the slightest bit surprised at the contribution of a man who flourishes in the intense and, for some at least, intimidating atmosphere of the Old Firm game.

“Scott is massive for us,” said Rogic. “When you have your captain leading by example in almost all of our matches – you saw it in the Betfred Cup tie at Dundee as well – it helps you enormously.

“He seems to win every 50-50 he goes into. He puts himself about for tackles and when the ball comes to him, he is calm and composed. He gets us set up on the right foot.

“He is crucial for us. He is a leader who leads by example.”

Meanwhile, Celtic are set to escape SFA punishment for the flare thrown on to the pitch – narrowly missing Rangers goalkeeper Wes Foderingham – following Rogic’s goal.

The Parkhead club will be able to show they took every possible precaution to ensure the good conduct and behaviour of their supporters at the match and will not face sanctions under SFA disciplinary rules 35 and 37.