Tam McManus reacted sarcastically as John Souttar conceded a penalty in Rangers’ 3-1 victory against Kilmarnock at Ibrox.
After a VAR review sent John Beaton to the pitch-side monitor for a handball against the Gers defender, the commentator turned to Twitter with a meme suggesting the shock of it had caused him to pass out.
Rory McKenzie’s cross from the right deflected off Souttar’s arm just inside the box as he slid in to block, and while it was not outstretched the referee decided to award the penalty which Danny Armstrong converted in the 58th minute.
McManus wrote, “Penalty AGAINST Rangers..” as they conceded a first SPFL spot kick in 75 games, although they have had a penalty awarded against them as recently as 5 November in other competitions.
Confected
All the focus on Rangers penalties tends to ramp up with an Old Firm derby approaching and a controversy around the lack of one for Philippe Clement’s men at Celtic on 30 December duly resulted.
But perhaps the outcry over the perceived lack of awards against the Light Blues can die down now that the league sequence has been broken.
The fact that Lawrence Shankland scored from the spot in the Viaplay Cup semi-final less than three months ago was conveniently overlooked, along with any others that have occurred outside of the top flight, in order to build up the 75-game outcry.
But that counter can now be reset to zero thanks to a relative soft penalty decision against Souttar, who didn’t have a great game in for Leon Balogun but was fairly unfortunate to be penalised.
His hand wasn’t outstretched or in a particularly unnatural position as he slid to make a challenge on the cross into the Rangers box, but the ball did come off his arm and Beaton decided that was enough.
Todd Cantwell restored the two-goal lead almost instantly as he converted Ridvan Yilmaz’s burst forward and low ball in, and the points were ultimately secured relatively comfortably.
That didn’t seem probable as Kilmarnock crept into the game in the first half, but a quick-fire double from Ross McCausland following a brilliant pass from Cyriel Dessers, followed by Abdallah Sima’s magnificent volley just before the interval, had Rangers in command.
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