Barry Ferguson slams Kevin Clancy for decisions in Rangers draw
Barry Ferguson has blasted the refereeing in the controversial draw between Rangers and Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Tuesday night.
The match finished 1-1 and saw Gers drop their first league points under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, after a game which saw a number of contentious decisions made by referee Kevin Clancy.
The former Ibrox captain was highly unimpressed by the official’s performance in sending off Ryan Kent, not awarding the Dons a first-half penalty, and not ordering their second-half spot kick to be retaken after the ball moved.
The Alloa Athletic manager told the Go Radio Football Show, as quoted by the Scottish Daily Express: “I thought some of the refereeing decisions were strange ones.”
On the home side’s equaliser, he said: “The penalty has got to be re-taken because the ball moved forward.
“Lewis (Ferguson) put it away really well, but it should have been re-taken, no doubt about it.
Regarding the appeal earlier in the game he said: “I can see why Aberdeen are asking for the penalty.
“Allan McGregor has gone to win the ball, you can see his trailing foot does hit him (Hedges) and it’s inside the box.
“We’ve been going on about it for months.
“Some of the decisions that are getting made at all levels, it baffles me sometimes.
Tough decisions
Both sides likely came away from the game unhappy with the referee after they were both on the wrong end of decisions.
Rangers were not at their best and ended up battling to avoid defeat, but van Bronckhorst will be particularly upset that his English winger was shown a second-half red card for two bookable offences in little over 10 minutes.
In both instances another referee in another setting might have opted against showing yellows, and it seemed like Clancy was aiming to dampen down any controversy by booking both Kent and Jonny Hayes for a minor clash.
But this only opened the door, as Scott Brown made the most of an innocuous foul to bring about the red, and his subsequent goading of the Gers man suggest he was taking full advantage of the disciplinary tightrope Kent had found himself on.
Equally though, despite scoring from a penalty where the wind blew the ball slightly off the spot, the Dandies will feel like they should have been given another one in the first half which may have given them all three points.
Ryan Hedges ran clear and touched the ball past the onrushing Allan McGregor who did make contact inside the area, but with no VAR the appeals were simply ignored.
All in all Ferguson’s assessment of the overall quality of the refereeing performance is pretty accurate.
In other Rangers news, this Ibrox man wowed Sky Sports pundit during the game.