Pundits slap down ‘crazy’ Steven Naismith complaints over Hearts defeat to Rangers – ‘He’s got nothing’
Steven Naismith’s complaints about the referee after Hearts were beaten by Rangers have been dismissed by the PLZ Soccer pundits.
None of Tam McManus, Lee McCulloch and Alan Rough, reacting on 6 November, could understand why the Jambos boss had made such a big issue after the 3-1 loss at Hampden, when he called it “crazy” and “strange” that Nick Walsh had initially sent Stephen Kingsley off for a second yellow.
A VAR review saw the card rescinded and a penalty awarded for a consolation goal but the pundits felt it was a fuss about nothing with the game already out of reach.
McManus said (4m 40s): “I thought he clipped him and there was contact there. I understand why the referee maybe thought it was a dive, the way he went down, but he’s kicked him.
“They went back and got the right decision in the end. In terms of Steven, I don’t know what he’s trying to insinuate there but I think there referee’s first thought is just ‘he’s dived’, and sometimes that can happen with anybody, any player, any manager, your first thought is [one thing] and then you maybe get it wrong.
“They got the right decision in the end, that’s what VAR was brought in for. He did clip him, but listen, the game was dead at that point, it was 3-0 anyway. I don’t understand where Steven’s coming from there to be honest.”
McCulloch added: “It doesn’t matter what the decision was it was going to be reviewed by VAR anyway.”
Rough then said: “I think he should be more concerned with how his team played in the second half of the game than that instance.
“If it had been 1-0 and it happened then fair enough you’ve got something to shout about, but he’s got nothing to hang on to. In the end they were well beaten.”
Aggrieved
It is probably fair enough for Naismith to be irritated that he had to go through a VAR check to get the late penalty, but for all VAR is trashed when it makes a mess of things it ultimately sorted that situation out.
It is fairly likely that the Hearts boss wouldn’t have been as annoyed were it not for the fact that he had been on the wrong end of two results against Philippe Clement’s side in a week.
The Jam Tarts arguably self-destructed in the league meeting last weekend, but were second best in the cup tie at Hampden.
Naismith was already furious about the late penalty concession for a shirt-pull on Connor Goldson in the SPFL defeat, despite pundits almost uniformly accepting it was the right decision.
That loss would have been a sickener for him and made anything that went against him in the second meeting all the more infuriating.
While it doesn’t make everything immaterial it is true the game was already out of reach so it had little impact on the outcome, and now Clement’s revival at Ibrox has the chance of adding a trophy next month.
In other Rangers news, another new Gers controversy has been branded “genuinely pathetic” after “embarrassing” developments on Sunday.