Kyle Lafferty admits he will probably receive abuse from opposition fans for the rest of his career.
Rangers forward keen to focus on football
Kyle Lafferty admits he will probably receive abuse from opposition fans for the rest of his career as he tries to rid himself of the cheat tag he picked up last season.
The Rangers forward was banned for a total of three games following the theatrics which earned Aberdeen's Charlie Mulgrew a red card in the penultimate SPL game of last season.
He collapsed to the turf clutching his face as if he had been headbutted by Mulgrew, who appeared to make no contact.
Lafferty will try to focus solely on his football from now on but realises it will be difficult to escape his past.
"I knew I was wrong and I know because of what I did that wherever I go I'm going to get booed and have abuse shouted at me," said the Northern Ireland international.
"I just need to take it and concentrate on my football.
"Last season, in the last game, the reception I got was awful but I silenced it by getting the goal early on, which is one way of dealing with it.
"I just want to play football and, to be honest, when you are concentrating that much you don't really hear it."
No hard feelings
Lafferty, who apologised for his behaviour after being fined by Rangers, insists Mulgrew does not hold a grudge over the incident.
"I've spoken to him a few times and we just have a laugh about it now. He thinks it's funny," said Lafferty.
"I think I'm always going to get the name and I'm always going to get abuse because of what happened.
"But I just have to try to forget about it. I do regret it. It was one of those things.
"It was a tough game for us and I actually didn't mean to go down."
