Kris Boyd and Alex Neil discuss Rangers penalty incident vs Hearts
Kris Boyd and Alex Neil believe Rangers should have been awarded a penalty for a foul on Ryan Kent during the first half of their 5-0 win against Hearts.
The Blues were 1-0 up and on top in the first half when Kent skipped past the Hearts defender, who grabbed a handful of his shirt to avoid being completely left behind.
Kent managed to still got a cross in, which eventually came to nothing, but many felt that referee Willie Collum should’ve given a penalty to Rangers because the challenge clearly impeded his ability to cross the ball properly.
Boyd and Neil were in the Sky Sports studio as pundits and at half-time, both men felt a penalty should’ve been given to the Bears.
“I think if he goes down he gets it, there’s no doubt about that,” Boyd said. “You can see he’s got his shirt there but he doesn’t go down, he gets the ball. He’s able to get the ball across so the referee is always going to play on but you go down then you ask a question of him.
“For me, it would’ve been a penalty if he goes down but he doesn’t.
Alex Neil was asked if a player should have to go down for a penalty to be given, and he claimed that Kent probably wasn’t fouled or he would have gone down.
“You make the referee make a decision. I think in that instance as well once the cross then comes to someone, if you score we don’t then talk about it. But when you’re in that position, Kent felt that he could put that ball in unimpeded.
“If he was being impeded and felt he was being fouled, he may well have went down.”
Penalty
If media and officials are going to complain about players going down too easily, then they need to start giving fouls even if a player doesn’t go down.
What happened to Kent in the first half was a clear instance of a player being punished for being honest, because it was a stonewall penalty.
The winger got away from the defender to the point where he has to tug on his shirt to even be within touching distance, and that clearly impacts the cross that he was able to put into the box.
If Kent had gone down nobody would have labelled him a diver or said he went down too easily, so the foul should be given by the referee once he sees there is no advantage to be had.
Ibrox was furious and the pundits are in agreement, Rangers were let down by the officials yet again in this instance.
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