Barry Ferguson will at least be able to walk away from Rangers with his head held high having proved that Brendan Rodgers isn’t the tactical genius that he likes to think he is.
He hasn’t helped his chances of getting the Rangers manager job on a permanent basis with a shocking run of form, however, a win at Parkhead and draw at Ibrox are better than all but Steven Gerrard have managed in recent seasons.
The Hall of Fame legend should be thanked for his service and return to his role as an ambassador, still capable of being a useful figure around the club.
He could so easily have left his post as Gers boss with two wins under his belt, if referee Nick Walsh and VAR Andrew Dallas hadn’t made every big call with fear of the the repercussions.
When asked about the penalty incident involving Callum McGregor and Ianis Hagi, Ferguson clearly wasn’t happy.
Barry Ferguson not happy with Nick Walsh as Rangers get nothing
What didn’t help Ferguson’s mood, is that Celtic’s leveller could easily have been given as offside seeing as Daizen Maeda was only a couple of feet away from the ball before it bounced past Liam Kelly.
Celtic benefitting once again in an Old Firm derby by the subjective nature of certain laws – we all know what happens at the other end of the park.
In his post-match press conference, Ferguson gave his verdict:
“Yeah, it’s one of those ones where it’s not a foul. The referee decides to give me a yellow card. I just need to accept it. But coming back to the penalty, if that’s in the middle of the pitch, it’s a foul. But it was in the box and it wasn’t given as a foul.
“I just need to move on quickly because I don’t want to start saying things that’s going to get me in trouble.”
Another Old Firm where the 50/50 calls go in Celtic’s favour
Ferguson also told Sky Sports that Rangers “didn’t get much” throughout the 90 minutes, a fact backed up by the standard difference in yellow cards to free-kicks ratio that Celtic seem to enjoy.
Celtic committed double the amount of fouls with Walsh keeping his cards in his pocket.
A clear directive for officials is that any player intimating that an opponent should be booked should receive a caution was ignored by Walsh with McGregor guilty on several occasions.
The penalty call was a 50/50 one, as was Maeda’s offside, surely, one day, Rangers will get one to land on their side?
It wasn’t why Rangers failed to claim all three points, but as in previous games under Clement, it certainly didn’t help the men in blue.
