JIMMY NICHOLL had mixed emotions bowing out at Rangers on the back of a 5-5 draw with Hibernian that denied the Light Blues second spot in the Premiership.

The Northern Irishman took charge of the side for the third and final time at Easter Road after being asked to step in following the sacking of Graeme Murty.

Rangers recovered from three goals down to lead 5-3 going into the closing stages but Neil Lennon’s side earned a last-gasp point at the end of a rollercoaster encounter.

Read more: Hibernian 5-5 Rangers: Light Blues finish third after Easter Road thriller

Aberdeen’s win over Celtic at Parkhead ensured they finished best of the rest in the top flight this term.

Rangers will now look to put a barren season behind them as Steven Gerrard gets set to take charge at Ibrox in the coming weeks.

And Nicholl hopes the incoming Gers boss will have seen something in the players that ended the campaign with a share of the spoils from a ten-goal thriller.

He said: “First of all we are disappointed because we haven’t achieved our target.

“It has been an eventful three games, not only today, but it is like everything else, you have scored five goals away from home and you haven’t won a game of football.

Read more: Chris Jack: Rangers must foot the bill for Steven Gerrard's Light Blues rebuild this summer

“We were 5-3 up as well. So there is the disappointment of that but you also have the effort that the players put in to come from 5-3 down after 20 minutes.

“Footballers know, goalkeepers know, defenders know, you can’t score five goals away from home and not win a game of football.

“But it is very hard to turn round and be critical of them after they got themselves back in the game. Never underestimate the power of a goal, I have always said it.

“At 3-0, it could have been 4-0 and it goes 3-1 and it gives you a lift and you are back in it. It goes 3-3 at half-time and we had to do our job at see what happened elsewhere.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen but we had to do our job, which was to win a game of football, and we gave ourselves a chance going into the second half.

Read more: Steven Gerrard: 'Celtic have had it their own way for far too long'​

“It is a disappointment [to finish third] because we were 5-3 up. When you are 3-0 down, you think ‘that’s it, we’ve blown it’. But when you are 5-3 up away from home…

“The sending off affected us a bit as well. All in all, all I can say is that it has been an eventful three games.

“They have shown a bit of character, a bit of ability as well, over the season and it depends on who is going to stay and who is not going to stay. The new manager will have seen something in some of the players today.”