George Overhill

Sun 29 January 2023 8:10, UK

Michael Stewart was aghast to see Ryan Jack escape with a booking for Rangers moments after Nicky Clark had been sent off for St Johnstone.

The Light Blues midfielder launched into a late challenge in the opposition box during the first half of the 2-0 win at Ibrox on Saturday, moments after he had been on the receiving end of a painful encounter with Clark who was then belatedly dismissed.

Referee Willie Collum immediately showed Jack and yellow and stuck with the decision after viewing the VAR monitor, becoming the first Scottish referee to use it and not overturn a decision, but both Stewart and James McFadden felt that just meant he’d got the decision wrong twice.

Reacting to the sequence on BBC Sportscene on Saturday night (28 January, 8.08pm) Stewart, already on a roll from expressing his outrage at the earlier penalty award and the red card for Nicky Clark, said: “Look how quickly the card is out of Willie Collum’s pocket.

“I think you could make a case to say yeah, yellow card, but in modern day football now?

“I’m astonished that’s not given as a red.

“As I say, you could make a case they maybe a yellow would suffice, but when you see those two challenges, the one that was on Ryan Jack and that one there today, and if you were told one was a red card and one was a yellow I would find it inconceivable that anybody would say they were the decisions that we’re showing.”

McFadden offered: “I though it was a red, I really did. Willie Collum was very quick to flash the yellow card and then when he was advised to go to the monitor we know that’s VAR telling him, ‘we think you’ve got it wrong’.

“The criteria that you’d look at, the speed that Ryan Jack’s going, is he in control. I don’t think he’s even attempting to play the ball, bearing in mind it’s not long after the challenge on him by Nicky Clark.”

Stewart wasn’t finished though and said: “Callum Davidson, when they’re going to Ibrox away from home, they need everything to go their way. They’ve had a penalty which I think is harsh, they’ve had a red card which was never, and then they’ve had an opposition player staying on the park when he arguably could have been sent off.”

Lucky break

Rangers should have won this game either way, as they showed real intent from the first whistle and never looked particularly threatened themselves.

But they were given a couple of helping hands along the way, with the challenges on and by Jack in quick succession at least comparable but dealt with very differently.

So Collum’s choices won’t do anything in the slightest to dampen down conspiracy theories around him or Scottish officiating, and certainly not an all-round fury at VAR.

Collum has upset the Gers as well on occasion, including this season, and it can’t be disputed that refereeing at the top level is a difficult job.

But the door is left open to outrage, criticism, and feelings of persecution when similar decisions go opposite ways and in such a differing amount of time, after a long delay without the referee apparently deciding either way eventually saw a red shown to Clark with a confusing VAR involvement.

Jack was probably still hurting from the previous challenge but it was a needless risk to take to nearly get himself sent off, when evening the teams out to 10 each would have given the visitors a route back into the game at 1-0.

In other Rangers news, one Gers player wowed the commentators with his “brilliant” and “class” play early on in this game.