BBC Sportscene pundit baffled by Liam Craig dive as Rangers beat St Johnstone
BBC Sportscene pundit James McFadden was baffled by Liam Craig’s dive as Rangers beat St Johnstone 2-0 at Ibrox on Wednesday night.
After dispossessing Glen Kamara on the edge of the Gers’ penalty area, Craig proceeded to drop to the ground while under pressure from the Finland midfielder.
Referee Euan Anderson was having none of it and despite Callum Davidson’s clear disagreement in the technical area, Craig was booked for simulation.
McFadden feels Anderson was 100 per cent correct to book Craig and cannot understand why the St Johnstone man didn’t take a shot.
“Liam Craig’s coming inside, he does everything right, great anticipation and cuts across Kamara. He’s got a goal to shoot at and he throws himself to the ground,” said McFadden on BBC Sportscene on Wednesday night.
“There’s no contract, the referee got it spot on, it was a dive. But I just can’t for the life of me figure out why he’s not taken the shot on.”
Richard Foster then added: “Especially Liam Craig, who shoots from anywhere – his eyes should’ve lit up there.
“Left foot, just bend it around Allan McMcGregor. But he’s just got the old collapsable legs on and down he goes.
“The referee got that one spot on.”
Tougher punishment for cheats
Rangers were lucky that Anderson was in good form on Wednesday night because you just know that other referees in Scotland would have probably awarded St Johnstone a penalty for that.
Craig went down without any contact really and you can see his legs fold as he tries to con the referee into awarding his side a spot-kick.
He was booked and rightly so. But the SFA need to do more to clamp down on diving because we’ve seen a lot of instances of it this season.
In the game, a booking seems fair. But after the match, there should be something that happens.
Whether it’s a fine, a one-match suspension or even a suspended one-match ban if they dive again would be better than a single yellow card.
If a player dives to win a penalty that could change the course of a game or severely impact the result, it’s a risk worth taking.
Why wouldn’t you risk a yellow card to earn your side a point or three?
In other Rangers news, Sky Sports have shared what the club has told van Brockhorst about their financial situation ahead of January.