Rangers: Ex-Premier League referee slams ‘really, really bad’ Dan Casey incident vs Motherwell
Dermot Gallagher has no idea why Dan Casey wasn’t sent off for the challenge which injured Ross McCausland in the Rangers defeat to Motherwell.
The former Premier League referee reacted to footage of the clash on Sky Sports on 4 March which he called a “really, really bad” one, after the Light Blues winger left Ibrox on crutches.
Casey wasn’t reprimanded for the first-half follow through on the Northern-Irishman and eventually scored the winner in a surprise 2-1 away win at Ibrox on 2 March.
Host Rob Wotton asked “why on earth” it wasn’t a red card for an incident which left Rangers “really unhappy”.
Gallagher answered: “I don’t know. I think it is a red card. It’s a really, really bad tackle. The pace he goes in, everything about it. The lad had to leave the pitch and went home on crutches I’m led to believe. Not a nice tackle.”
Dermot Gallagher baffled as Ross McCausland injured for Rangers
If you go flying in with your studs up it doesn’t matter any more if you win the ball first, and Casey clearly caught McCausland if the 20-year-old went off injured.
Officials often make contentious decisions based on incidents meeting certain criteria, even when the so-called eye test leaves most observers with a different view.
So it is strange that the Casey challenge was completely overlooked when it would seem to both be out of control and endangering the safety of an opponent.
Rangers rivals may wish to point to Connor Goldson escaping punishment for a lunge in the cup victory against Ayr United, but the defender was indeed lucky to avoid sanction himself and surely benefited from Roy Syla not being hurt.
That McCausland being taken out on top of extensive injury issues for Philippe Clement, with Oscar Cortes, Abdallah Sima, Danilo and Todd Cantwell all currently missing, makes it all the more frustrating for the manager.
The Belgian expressed his confusion over the decision after the game, although not everyone agrees with him.
In other Rangers news, a new Lawrence Shankland transfer verdict has been issued in the wake of the shock defeat.
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