Tom English reacts to controversial incident in Rangers draw v Aberdeen, shares ‘ridiculous’ verdict
Tom English believes Rangers were right to be awarded a late penalty following a foul by Stefan Gartenmann on Connor Goldson against Aberdeen on Sunday (26 November).
Speaking on the Scottish Football Podcast on Monday (27 November), the BBC Scotland chief sports writer said it was a “ridiculous” piece of defending as the Dons centre-back was adjudged to have pulled the Gers defender’s shirt before James Tavernier stepped up to rescue a 1-1 draw for his side.
He added that the 30-year-old did go down “theatrically”, but that the Dane was “asking for trouble” as he believes a penalty was rightfully given at Pittodrie.
“I thought it was a ridiculous piece of defending if that’s what you want to call it,” said English. “Yes, Goldson hurled himself on the floor, theatrically, but maybe he felt he had to do that to draw attention to the jersey pull. If he didn’t go down, would the referee necessarily have picked up the jersey pull?
“As a defender, if you do that, you’re asking for trouble. There was no need for him to do it. It was a stupid piece of defending that has cost his team. I would say, on balance, it’s probably a penalty. I think there was enough of a tug there.”
Had to be given
It was an absolutely ridiculous decision for the Aberdeen defender to make given that VAR is always going to pick those incidents up.
While he didn’t grab hold of Goldson shirt’s for too long, he did impede his run and prevent him from getting close to the ball.
The biggest issue is that these incidents happen all the time and the officials aren’t consistent enough in giving them as the defenders always seem to get the benefit of the doubt.
It doesn’t really matter whether or not the Gers man was going to get to the ball because if a foul has been committed, then any other argument goes out of the window.
Although the point isn’t really good enough from a Light Blues perspective, it could’ve been a lot worse had Tavernier not dispatched the penalty to earn his side a late draw to keep them in the SPFL title race.
In other Rangers news, one player has a decision to make after receiving a “major” offer from Clement at Ibrox.