Frank McAvennie slams Ross McCausland over Rangers ‘disgrace’ vs Livingston, lauds ‘justice’ of James Tavernier error
Frank McAvennie slammed the decision not to overturn the Rangers first-half penalty at Livingston, and celebrated James Tavernier’s miss as “justice”.
The former Celtic striker reacted on Twitter after the Light Blues were awarded a spot kick on 12 November as Ross McCausland went over Shamal George’s outstretched arm, calling it a “disgrace” that the VAR didn’t rescind the award.
Captain Tavernier then put the penalty wide of the right-hand post in the 23rd minute to leave the score goalless, with McAvennie convinced his miss was deserved.
McAvennie wrote: “That’s a disgrace, VAR at its best again, no contact at all, justice done.”
Cyriel Dessers put the Light Blues ahead three minutes later, with Tavernier scoring a second penalty in the 75th minute.
Eventful
It was certainly on the softer side of penalty awards but we have seen time and time again that anything within the grey area of subjectiveness is often ignored by VAR for not being a clear and obvious error.
Tavernier has now missed from the spot twice in the space of three weekends, although he has also scored three in that time.
He will want to iron out the failures as priority, even as his impact remains crucial to the Gers side, but if it saves extensive outrage over the first penalty award perhaps the “justice” of it was the easier outcome.
VAR was heavily involved in a dominant Rangers first 45 minutes, with two other goals ruled out after reviews from the assistant.
Conor Goldson’s early apparent opener was disallowed thanks to Cyriel Dessers’ attempt to get a touch on the ball from an offside position, which was a relatively straight-forward decision.
Ross McCausland’s first goal for the club being chopped off for a perceived foul by Abdallah Sima was far more debatable, and helped keep the score down.
Ultimately Philippe Clement will just be interested in the points on the difficult Livingston surface, and while the second half became a training exercise for long stretches, the visitors certainly appeared to have done enough for the win prior to that amid various debatable officiating.
In other Rangers news, Fabrizio Romano reports that Premier League clubs have been lining up with interest around an Ibrox ace, as the club tries to lock him down.