BBC Sportscene pundit: Moment of madness in Rangers win v Hearts as Cammy Devlin sent off
Kenny Miller has slammed Cammy Devlin for overstepping the mark when he was sent off in Hearts’ 4-0 defeat to Rangers at Tynecastle on Saturday.
Antonio Colak put the Light Blues 2-0 up after 30 minutes before Devlin was shown a straight red card for an aggressive challenge on Rabbi Matondo.
BBC Scotland pundit Miller believes that although Devlin didn’t intend to hurt Matondo, the stamping action in his tackle was enough to warrant a sending-off.
“He just oversteps the mark here,” said Miller on BBC Scotland’s Sportscene on Saturday (1 October, 15m40s).
“You can see the Rangers bench are up in arms at this moment.
“It’s right in front of the bench, you can see what’s happened. I know he’s not gone in to hurt anybody but it’s that stamping motion that you see.
“When he comes in, his knee raises and stamps down but the contact’s not so much. It’s not that high and I don’t believe he’s tried to hurt Rabbi Matondo at all.
“But with that stamping motion, it was a bit of a moment of madness from him. At 2-0 down, it was always going to be an uphill struggle.”
Shocking
Devlin had to go for that challenge.
It was reckless and endangered an opponent, which is enough for a red card.
We agree with Miller in that Devlin didn’t mean to make that challenge. He just rushed in and went in way harder on Matondo than he needed to.
That willingness to get across was no doubt good to see from a Hearts fan’s point of view. But that aggressive approach led to an overly-aggressive challenge, which just happens sometimes.
Thankfully Matondo wasn’t hurt and Rangers went on to win the game 4-0 without really breaking a sweat.
Colak’s goalscoring run continued, Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent were on the scoresheet and we kept a clean sheet against a team who had the potential to cause us issues.
Our start to the season hasn’t been great but that win was definitely needed.
Up next is a trip to Liverpool in the Champions League.
It might be a bit tougher. Maybe.
In other Rangers news, this star player has rejected a new contract at Ibrox.