Willie Collum has been thrown into the Scottish Cup limelight as Scott Brown plays the referee card following Rangers’ victory over Ayr United.
The Gers ran out comfortable 2-0 winners over the Honest Men at Ibrox in the end, goals from Borna Barisic and Fabio Silva enough to ensure victory.
But rather than graciously admit defeat come the final whistle, Scott Brown couldn’t resist ramping up the referee pressure on a day when Willie Collum flashed him a yellow card.
The controversial whistler was returning to a Rangers game after the Ibrox side slaughtered the referee’s performance in the Old Firm defeat to Celtic back in December.
Scott Brown blasts Willie Collum
Speaking after the game, Scott Brown insisted that Fabio Silva should’ve been sent off for a second yellow card following a challenge on George Stanger.
Silva would go on to score the second goal of the game – a moment which all but ended the little resolve Ayr United had – and Rangers progressed in the Scottish Cup.
Talking about the yellow card he received from Willie Collum, Brown said: “It was only a matter of time to be perfectly honest and I think he should’ve sent Silva off for his second tackle. It’s that pressure situation, people can’t deal with it.”
Pre-match Scott Brown claimed that he has a “lot of love for Rangers”; going by his post-match seethe we’re pretty sure he was being sarcastic.
Referee drama as Rangers progress v Ayr United
Ayr United manager Scott Brown isn’t the only whose been bemoaning Willie Collum either, with controversial pundit Michael Stewart criticising a decision in the second period.
Collum blew up on what appeared a perfectly legitimate slide tackle from Nicolas Raskin with Stewart branding the decision as “ludicrous refereeing” live on ViaPlay’s coverage of the match.
The controversial referee was never going to escape his return to officiating Rangers without controversy, even if it was against lowly Ayr United.
It wasn’t a vintage Rangers performance at Ibrox but the side got the job done as Philippe Clement’s side march forward towards a first treble in over 20 years.
There is still a long way to go before we can achieve that but for the time being Rangers are at least competitive in all the domestic competitions and the Europa League.
We suspect that the return of Willie Collum here will see the whistler back on league duties before long and it’s interesting that it’s not Rangers, but rather two of the club’s sworn enemies, who’re lambasting the whistler.
Before the game Philippe Clement appeared frustrated at Rangers’ official reaction to Collum’s decision-making at Celtic Park.
Perhaps that’s because far from being biased, he’s just not a very good referee.
