Ryan Jack mocks Sky Sports pundit amid criticism of controversial decisions in Rangers vs St Johnstone
Ryan Jack has taken to social media to laugh off criticism of the refereeing decisions around him as Rangers beat St Johnstone at the weekend.
The Light Blues ran out comfortable 2-0 winners at Ibrox on Saturday (28 January), in a game which saw the home side awarded a penalty by Willie Collum, while Nicky Clark was sent off for a challenge on Jack minutes before the Bears midfielder escaped with a booking for a tackle of his own.
Collum’s performance, along with the arbitrary use of VAR for the different decisions, has already sparked criticism from multiple sources including Michael Stewart and James McFadden on BBC Sportscene, and Cove Rangers defender Mark Reynolds added his voice when speaking to Sky Sports on Monday (30 January), but Jack has dismissed the reaction online.
Posting on his Instagram stories on Monday Jack was having the time of his life laughing down the criticism from Reynolds.
With multiple laughing emojis he posted over a clip of Reynolds’ interview: “Pen awwwwww day!”
And in a separate post he wrote: “Talking about me giving away pens in opposition box outside pittodrie!! Banter years man! “I love this game””.
Unaffected
Debatable refereeing decisions in a Rangers game at Ibrox are always going to draw scrutiny across the league, and with the introduction of VAR going down about as well as it did in every other country that has been heightened.
Jack may have been lucky to stay on the pitch at the weekend, or Clark may have been harshly dismissed, but it was as much the apparently random involvement of the video assistant as the decisions themselves that made the whole thing so unsatisfactory for many.
Michael Beale and his side have no control over that, and played out a routine if uninspiring win, although Jack himself didn’t need to even take the risk of evening up the numbers and Beale duly substituted him at half time after his yellow card.
Clearly it’s all been water off a duck’s back for the Light Blues midfielder, who saw his side collect another three points and move on, but criticism of Collum and Scottish referees in general will rumble on all season if they carry on in such an inconsistent manner.
Jack will need to concentrate on keeping himself in his manager’s good books for the time being, with Standard Liege’s Nicolas Raskin now finally on the brink of arriving at Ibrox.
The Gers were helped on their way by some of the officiating, but never looked in danger of anything other than the win, so Jack can sit back and enjoy the reaction, even if Beale made clear afterwards he sees a number of limitations he wants to address in his squad still.
In other Rangers news, the club are now finalising a deal to get a transfer completed before Tuesday’s deadline.