Kris Boyd and Neil Lennon react to incident live on Sky in Rangers loss v Celtic
Neil Lennon and Kris Boyd have admitted they would be “absolutely raging” with John Lundstram after his red card as Rangers were beaten by Celtic.
Matt O’Riley and a Lundstram own goal were enough for the Hoops to claim a 2-1 win despite Cyriel Dessers pulling one back in a wild five minutes at the end of the first half, before Lundstram’s day got even worse as he was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Alistair Johnston.
And while analysing the tackle at half-time for Sky Sports (11 May), both Boyd and former Celtic boss Lennon admitted it was a stonewall red card for the 30-year-old midfielder.
“If I’m Philippe Clement, I’m absolutely raging [with John Lundstram],” Lennon said. “100%.”
Boyd then chimed in too, criticising the midfielder.
“You’re endangering an opponent. It’s a red card all day long,” he said. “You’re endangering an opponent, it’s excessive force because you’re travelling, and Willie Collum has got it spot on. John Lundstram has left him with no choice.”
Lennon added to his earlier statement too, calling the whole thing “madness”.
“He’s an experienced player too. They’ve done great to get back into the game against, lets get it right, a top team. For me they’ve shown great mentality there, the shape has been alright, but they’re playing against Celtic and Celtic have been excellent at times.
“But that’s, that’s a huge turning point in Celtic’s favour and it’s madness.”
Absolute madness from John Lundstram for Rangers
In the biggest games, at the most hostile grounds, it’s your experienced players that must step up and withstand the pressure.
For Rangers that is Lundstram in this instance, and he completely let the team down by flying in for that tackle and putting his team on the back foot after they had just got back into the game.
But this is a reason why fans aren’t that mad that he looks set to be leaving the club this summer, because he has regularly failed to step up to the plate when it matters most.
Clement has regularly been let down too by him, and he must own his mistake for trusting him once again. The team looked far more in control once Nicolas Raskin was on the pitch, and that says a lot.
The red card had a huge impact on the game and ultimately was a huge reason for the defeat. It’s poor, and not what you expect from your key men.
In other Rangers news, Sutton and Miller have clashed after a “dangerous” incident vs Celtic.
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