Michael Stewart disagrees with Ally McCoist after Sakala incident in Rangers win v Aberdeen
Michael Stewart believes the height of Anthony Stewart’s red card tackle on Rangers attacker Fashion Sakala is “irrelevant” as he debated the match-changing incident with Ally McCoist after the game.
The tackle came in the 94th minute of action between Michale Beale’s side and Aberdeen (Sunday 15 Janaury), which finished 1-1 before Kemar Roofe’s extra-time goal sent the Gers through to face Celtic in the final of the ViaPlay Cup.
The Aberdeen skipper was shown a straight red card for his reckless challenge, and although agreeing with the referee’s decision, pundit Stewart was adamant the challenge wasn’t too high in his eyes, as he went toe-to-toe with McCoist live on Viaplay Sports UK.
“Look, for me, he’s not too high. He’s not high, it’s the force,” Stewart said.
“He clatters into him. There’s no debate about it, it’s a horrendous tackle.”
McCoist then jumped in, stating: “I’ll tell you right now, if his right leg follows through, if Sakala’s leg is on the ground, he isn’t just breaking it, he snaps it in two.”
Stewart responded: “It’s irrelevant because it’s a red card all day long.”
Terrible
The challenge from Stewart was deserving of a red card, but what was going through his mind?
After going toe to toe with Rangers all game long and looking like they would get into extra time unscathed, the Dons defender let the magnitude of the moment get to his head as he sythed down Sakala.
This comes just weeks after he was sent off in Paisley against St Mirren and severely dented their hopes of getting anything from the Cup semi-final.
Beale’s side showed a lot of character to come through the encounter after falling behind to Nojan Miovski’s first-half goal. Although a slightly worrying trend of going a goal down is starting to rear its head with Rangers, they seem to come out stronger in the second half of matches and blow their opposition away.
A Hampden Park final against Celtic now awaits the Gers and Beale’s first opportunity to claim some silverware since taking the job in the Ibrox dugout.
In other Rangers news, the Gers are expected to sign this “World Cup star” in January.