Huge Rangers controversy vs Hearts compared to Man United incident against Arsenal
Rangers were woeful as they lost to Hearts at Ibrox, but away from their performance issues, they fell victim to some poor refereeing decision.
Russell Martin was booed by the Ibrox crowd during the defeat, and all the focus since the game has been on his future at Rangers.
Rangers have often had to deal with controversial refereeing decisions, but Kevin Thelwell and Martin have taken the brunt of fan anger rather than the match officials this time.
Lawrence Shankland scored a brace, but his first goal included an alleged handball while his second was a contentious penalty, and there was another decision which unfairly went against Rangers.
Rangers disallowed goal decision was wrong
Derek Cornelius was denied a debut goal, after he poked in from close range following a mess from a corner, but his effort was disallowed by the referee, which was backed up by VAR.
- Thelo Aasgaard was adjudged to have made contact with Hearts goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow, and a foul was awarded to the away side.
- The goalkeeper meekly went for the ball, and there was minimal contact between him and the Rangers midfielder, but Hearts were awarded the decision.
Speaking on Sky Sports News, former Premier League star Jay Bothroyd claimed that Rangers' goal should have stood, and compared this incident to one which happened in Manchester United's defeat to Arsenal.
"We spoke about this before with [Altay] Bayindir in the Arsenal Man United game, and it's the same thing, except this time, he got the decision; in that previous game, the goalkeeper didn't," Bothroyd stated.
"I think the goalkeeper's got to be stronger, he's allowed to jump and use his arms, he needs to come out and be aggressive. He has to be stronger. It's a poor decision, it should have been a goal, it could get the manager sacked.
"He's not even fallen over, and he's gotten the benefit of the doubt. We said this before with Bayindir, if you go down there's half a chance you will get the decision, he didn't even go down and he got the decision."
Rangers unlucky with disallowed goal
This goal was compared to Riccardo Calafiori's winning goal for Arsenal against Man United on the opening day, which saw goalkeeper Altay Bayindir flap at a corner with minimal contact, and a foul was not awarded.
The Hearts goalkeeper did similar, as he completely misjudged his jump, and was weak in his attempt to claim the ball, but managed to win the foul.
Had the goal been allowed to stand, Rangers would have equalised and possibly gone on to win, although given their dire performance, fans may not be convinced that Martin's side would have had the mental fortitude to complete the comeback.