Dermot Gallagher reacts to Rangers incident in 2-0 victory v Livingston live on Sky Sports
Dermot Gallagher believes the official’s decision to hand Rangers a penalty in the first half of their 2-0 win against Livington on Sunday was incorrect.
The former Premier League referee, speaking live on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch on Monday afternoon (13 November) believes the Ross McCausland incident was not a foul as the youngster buckled under his own legs.
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.
And Gallagher argued, it wasn’t a penalty. He said: “Not a foul, looks a foul here (from behind) but when you see it here it’s not a foul. This is the view that the referee hasn’t got but it’s not a foul”.
Poor
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 spot that McCausland dived is so poor and certainly screams of ineptitude on their part and they’re lucky James Tavernier did not convert the penalty there could well have been an uproar from inside Livingston.
Justice was certainly 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