Kris Boyd slams ’embarrassing’ decision to disallow Alfredo Morelos goal in Rangers 3-2 loss v Celtic
Kris Boyd has slammed the “embarrassing” decision to disallow Alfredo Morelos’ first-half goal for Rangers against Celtic on Saturday (8 April).
With the deadlock yet to be broken after 20 minutes of the Old Firm encounter at Celtic Park, Morelos gave Michael Beale’s side the lead with a well-taken strike, which was subsequently ruled out.
Referee Kevin Clancy disallowed the opening goal due to a grappling match between the Colombian forward and Celtic defender Alastair Johnston, who had thrown himself to the ground after feeling contact.
Speaking live on Sky Sports (8 April, 1:25pm) at half-time of the Old Firm clash that ended in a 3-2 win for the Hoops, Boyd was exasperated at the decision-making of the officials.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing,” he ranted.
“See at the end of the day it’s a contact sport. Alastair Johnston has got a grip on Alfredo Morelos. Alfredo Morelos has got a grip of him as well, and then all of a sudden he decides to fall forward because he knows he got under the ball.
“That should be a goal, that is embarrassing.”
Soft
The call to rule out Morelos’ goal was quite simply ridiculous by Kevin Clancy.
In a fierce and hotly contested Old Firm encounter the fact that a tiny little grapple such as this was penalised is simply not right.
Both Morelos and Johnston were holding onto each other, and the referee only awarded the free-kick in Celtic’s direction because he threw himself to the floor.
If it had been the other way around, and Morelos had chucked himself to the ground, would it have been awarded as a penalty?
After a bright start to the game, such a call ended up being a sucker punch to the Gers’ hopes of taking an early lead in the historic derby.
If they had gone 1-0 up through Morelos, it could well have been a different story.
As it was, the Gers had another game-changing decision go against them, and Celtic made Beale’s side pay in the second half.
In other Rangers news, Tom English says two senior pros ‘will depart’ Ibrox this summer.