BBC Sportscene pundit Cammy Bell defends Rangers player after watching back footage
Cammy Bell says the decision to award a penalty against John Souttar in the match between Rangers and Kilmarnock was “very harsh”.
John Beaton awarded a penalty after Rory McKenzie’s cross hit the hand of Souttar during the second half of Tuesday’s (2 January) match.
However, speaking on BBC Sportscene [2 January, 15m 2s], Bell felt the Rangers centre-back was unfortunate to be penalised in his side’s 3-1 win.
“John Souttar is aware of his body position. When you see the close-up, he’s sliding in with his right leg leading,” Souttar said as he watched back the footage.
“His right arm is going to go with the leg. The fact it hits his hand is why the referee says it’s a penalty.
“But I do think it’s very harsh on Souttar because he’s trying to keep it in. The inconsistency is the biggest frustration for Philippe Clement.”
No harm done
This is one of those that was always going to be given in the modern day. The ball hit Souttar on his hand and the referee therefore pointed to the spot.
Souttar can feel harshly treated, although ultimately it mattered very little as Todd Cantwell scored again for Rangers a few minutes later.
Had Kilmarnock got something out of the game, with this spot-kick making it 2-1 temporarily, this would have been a bigger talking point.
Of more interest was the fact this was the first penalty Rangers had conceded in the league since January 18, 2022 – almost two years ago.
That is a development that certainly got people talking on social media given all the jokes made of so-called bias in Rangers’ favour.
As this decision went a long way to showing, though, there is no such thing. Souttar was unfortunate, but we can swiftly move on.
In other Rangers news, Chris Jack has suggested a Gers regular may have two games to save his Ibrox career.