Stan Collymore reacts to footage of apparent controversy in Rangers win over Hearts
Stan Collymore reacted to footage from the Rangers cup victory over Hearts on Sunday to suggest the fourth official was delighted with the second goal.
The pundit took to Twitter on 5 November to respond to footage of David Dickinson nodding slightly towards a celebrating Philippe Clement, claiming “drool coming down the 4th’s chin” wouldn’t have been out of place.
The official was looking on in the aftermath of Scott Wright’s second in the 3-1 win at Hampden Park that sent the Light Blues into the Viaplay Cup final.
Collymore wrote: “Only thing missing here was a couple of inches [of] drool coming down the 4th’s chin.”
Seized upon
Rangers rivals were always going to react to something like this, whether seriously or in jest, and with Collymore public about his Celtic admiration it makes sense that he would get involved as reactions built up on social media.
It is impossible to say whether Dickinson was simply acknowledging Clement’s joy or whether he shared it but that largely won’t matter for those who have made their minds up over what they think it meant.
Either way there doesn’t seem to be any real scope to suggest the fourth official at Hampden could have had an impact on the game, but anything that suggests bias isn’t especially helpful in the grand scheme of things when officiating increasingly feels like it is in crisis both in Scotland and elsewhere.
If he was privately backing Rangers it would be pretty short-sighted of Dickinson to have visibly expressed his satisfaction at a goal in a way that was always likely to be captured on TV cameras in a high-profile match like a cup semi at Hampden.
So if there are other factors in officials’ decision-making, in Scotland or elsewhere, it seems pretty unlikely that this is evidence of it.
On the day Rangers were good value for their place in the final, having responded to what was a fortunate SPFL win over Hearts last weekend to avoid the need for similar late drama in the cup.
Clement looks to have had a very positive impact at Ibrox so far and will now have his eye on a first trophy within weeks of arriving in Glasgow.
In other Rangers news, the manager has been robbed of an “absolute machine” in the squad by failures at Ibrox.