Kenny Miller stunned by Joe Aribo in first half of Rangers v Motherwell
Former Rangers striker Kenny Miller was stunned by Joe Aribo’s first-half miss against Motherwell on Sunday afternoon.
Aribo, 25, was named in Steven Gerrard’s starting XI for their Scottish Premiership clash at Fir Park today, and he had an early opportunity to give the Gers the lead with a free header at the back post.
However, the Nigeria international’s effort was wide of the goal, and the away side were left to rue Aribo’s miss just minutes later as Bevis Mugabi opened the scoring for ‘Well in the 13th minute.
Speaking via BBC Sportsound for live coverage of the Sunday clash, as relayed via the BBC Sport commentary text feed, Miller was baffled by the inability of Aribo to score a seemingly simple chance.
“That’s an incredible chance, it should be 1-0 Rangers,” Miller said. “He just really needs to hit the target at the back post and he puts it wide.”
Major miss
The goal was gaping, and there was little in the way of marking in the Motherwell box – Aribo should have buried his header in the goal.
However, replays did show that he was standing in an offside position, so would his effort have been ruled out regardless of whether he was more accurate with his header?
Well, the assistant referee did not appear to raise his flag, and the referee, Nick Walsh, did not immediately signal that he had spotted an infringement.
Indeed, a goal-kick was subsequently awarded, and thus one can only assume that there was no inclination to award an offside if Aribo had actually scored.
Therefore, it has to go down as a massive missed opportunity for the Gers, one that had significant consequences as Motherwell scored just minutes after the incident.
In other Rangers news, Adrian Durham has issued a thinly-veiled dig at this big-name Ibrox player after a recent development.