(Credit: Imago/ Sky Sports Football)

Don Robertson got 'illegal' Bushiri incident wrong in Rangers v Hibs - Ex-PGMOL chief

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). Focus: Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

Published on:

06 Apr 2025, 1:40 am

Hibernian became the latest side to rock up at Ibrox and win as they earned a 2-0 win against Rangers on Saturday.

Barry Ferguson was left furious at his Rangers players as goals from Dylan Levitt and Martin Boyle saw them off.

Rangers' latest loss at Ibrox stunned many, but it should not come as too much as a surprise as that is now five home losses in a row.

Amid all the fallout, an incident involving Gers striker Cyriel Dessers appears to have gone somewhat under the radar.

Ferguson oversaw another Rangers home loss (Credit: Imago)

Keith Hackett calls out referee error in Rangers loss v Hibs

Dessers was quite clearly blocked off the ball by Hibs defender Rocky Boshiri when attempting to run into the opposition box.

Had the Nigeria international got to the ball, with the scoreline 1-0 at that stage, he would have had a one-on-one, but the incident went unpunished.

In the view of former PGMOL chief Hackett, it is a decision referee Don Robertson and his team got wrong.

Speaking exclusively to Ibrox News, Hackett said: "There is no doubt that the illegal use of the arm to unfairly impede his opponent should have resulted in a free-kick and yellow card to Boshiri. The VAR under the criteria is unable to intervene."

It was a busy afternoon for Robertson at Ibrox, who was at the centre of another "bizarre" call.

Dessers failed to find the target against Hibs (Credit: Imago)

Rangers' Ibrox woes continue

The list of teams to have won at Ibrox over the past five matches reads: Queen's Park, St Mirren, Motherwell, Fenerbahce and now Hibernian.

It is a truly woeful return and may just cost Ferguson the job on a full-time basis.

Rangers	Stat	Hibernian
15	Shots	7
3	Shots on target	3
72%	Possession	28%
620	Passes	241
86%	Pass accuracy	71%

Rangers v Hibernian in numbers.

However, this season ultimately comes down to the Europa League. And with the first leg of the Athletic Bilbao match just days away, Ferguson cannot afford a repeat of this shocking performance.

While Robertson may have been guilty of a howler in the loss to Hibernian, it cannot be used as too much of an excuse.

Fingers crossed this is the last of this terrible home run, or else Rangers can kiss goodbye to their European hopes.

Barry Ferguson

Keith Hackett

Don Robertson