Kris Boyd’s comments about John Beaton mean SFA cannot ban Steven Gerrard
Rangers picked up a huge win against Livingston but Steven Gerrard could pick up a touchline ban for his half-time actions, which resulted in a red card.
The Gers boss did not hold back in criticising referee John Beaton for his failure to award Alfredo Morelos a penalty.
His reaction was certainly eye-catching and out of character but the SFA must take into account the context of the match.
We are only a few points off the title and therefore big decisions that go against us will have more of an impact than usual.
Sky Sports pundit Kris Boyd also raised a key point when commenting on Wednesday’s incident.
As quoted by The Scotsman, he said: “As soon as John Beaton has gone up the tunnel he’s thinking ‘have I got it wrong, have I got it right?’.
“When he’s told he’s got it wrong there are a lot of thoughts going through his head and has sent Steven Gerrard off for something he’s going to be right about.
“It’s a rush of blood and looking back he’ll think, ‘I’ve got this totally wrong’.”
Beaton did make the wrong call, as there was clearly contact on Morelos from Livingston goalkeeper Max Stryjek.
Gerrard was rightly aggrieved and though he did not choose his words rightly it is understandable that his emotions were running so high.
If the SFA choose to back the official despite clearly being in the wrong then we really will despair.
They have already gone against us in key decisions recently, retroactively banning Morelos and Kemar Roofe even when the latter received an on-field punishment.
The SFA simply cannot do the same to Gerrard by issuing him a touchline ban – doing so would make them look foolish.
It also risks Stevie G missing the match against Celtic and our next match against St.Mirren when we could clinch the title.
It would be wrong to deny him that.
In other Rangers news, Michael Stewart was at odds with BBC pundit over Beaton with a claim about Morelos incident in Rangers win.