Stuart McCall: Kemar Roofe red card in Rangers v Slavia Prague is ‘Undefendable’
Stuart McCall slammed Kemar Roofe after the substitute’s dangerous challenge earned him a red card in the second half of Rangers v Slavia Prague.
Roofe was on the pitch for less than 10 minutes when he latched onto a long raking ball that saw him come head-to-head with the onrushing Slavia keeper Ondrej Kolar.
The Gers forward raised his boot and connected with Kolar’s head and the referee deemed it to be violent play and handed Roofe a red card for his troubles while the goalkeeper was forced off the field.
Speaking on BBC Sportsound [21:20, 18/03/21] McCall said: “It’s undefendable, isn’t it?
“Horrible challenge, 100% red card.
“It looks horrendous because of all the blood and there’s no doubt it’s one million percent a red card.”
Mis-placed faith
Roofe is understandably rusty after missing five of the last seven games and he will have been desperate to impress as Rangers chased the game in the second half but it was a complete aberration of judgement on his part.
That sort of challenge was unlikely to fly ten or twenty years ago but especially in this day and age with increased scrutiny and the presence of VAR you absolutely cannot raise your foot to that height and cause danger to opponents.
At 28-years-old Roofe should know better and ultimately that was the killer blow to our Europa League hopes.
He is not solely to blame but his dismissal pretty much killed off any hopes of scoring the two goals to send us through without needing extra-time and made it very unlikely we would even score one.
Steven Gerrard may come out and defend him but privately he will be seething that Roofe has let him down in this way.
Roofe had a terrific first half of the season but injuries have hampered his last few months and his stock is likely to take a hit after this setback.
He has a lot of making up to do now but whether that can be achieved this season remains to be seen.
In other Rangers news, 22y/o Gers outcast set for loan exit.