Official Rangers partner left in furious rage at VAR after Ross McCausland controversy in 2-0 win v Livingston
Heart & Hand were left in furious rage at VAR’s “bizarre” decisions to hand Rangers a penalty and disallow a Ross McCausland goal in the first half of their 1-0 win over Livingston on Sunday (12 November).
The Gers were ahead at the break at the Tony Macaroni Arena thanks to Cyriel Dessers’ strike but should have added to their lead when James Tavernier skewed his penalty wide of the post.
Rangers had won the spot-kick after McCausland went down under a challenge from Shamal George inside the penalty area for which VAR strangely awarded the penalty after the youngster clearly dived.
McCausland then had a goal disallowed soon after when Abdallah Sima was adjudged to have fouled a Livingston defender in the build-up and Heart and Hand, sharing on their personal Twitter account (12 November) weren’t particularly pleased with VAR decisions.
They tweeted: “Bizarre VARing here. Never a penalty and 100% good goal ruled out.”
So bizarre
Most Rangers supporters will certainly admit that McCausland went down so easily under the challenge from the Livingston goalkeeper with the Light Blues winger making sure he maximised the contact he received in the challenge.
The 20-year-old looked to already be on his way down before George even went to ground to swipe the ball away but the referee and VAR were completely duped by the youngster’s actions.
How the VAR officials did not correct the on-field decision is incredibly bad and certainly screams of ineptitude on their part.
However, justice was done for the home side when Tavernier surprisingly curled the penalty wide of the target but the ineptitude did not stop there as McCausland was disallowed his first goal in a Rangers shirt.
After such a hard-working and encouraging display, the Gers wonder will certainly feel hard done by the terrible officiating but the way he is carrying himself in Philippe Clement’s squad certainly means that elusive first goal is soon on its way.
In other Rangers news, Ryan Jack expects talks to begin over his Ibrox future at the beginning of 2024