St. Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has urged officials to be “brave enough” to give a penalty against Rangers as the Ibrox club prepare to visit Paisley.
Calvin Bassey’s careless clash with St. Mirren’s Dylan Connolly after the winger got wrong-side of the defender in the Buddies recent League Cup victory over the Gers is the only domestic penalty the Ibrox side has conceded this season.
This is a massive reflection on the strength of Rangers’ defending where teams have been limited from even taking a shot on goal let alone getting near the box.
But Goodwin has angered Rangers fans – many of whom believe he’s brought the game into disrepute – as he urged officials to give more against the Ibrox club.
“In any game you are in you need an element of luck, you need certain decisions to go in your favour,” said Goodwin [NTOF].
“You need the referees to get the big decisions right on the day and be brave enough to make those decisions.
“There has been one or two instances where there have been penalties that haven’t been awarded and you are hoping that those kinds of decisions don’t go against us tomorrow.
“I think I’m right in saying Rangers are the only team in the Premiership who haven’t had a penalty given against them and sometimes subconsciously it can play on the minds of officials.
“You just hope that if we are to have one of those decisions tomorrow that they go in our favour and the referees are brave enough to make the calls needed.”
The controversial comments also come after conspiracy theories aplenty appeared to be ratified in the minds of some by Willie Collum failing to award Hibs a penalty at the weekend.
Despite Rangers having the better of three major shouts in the match, commentators, rival fans and newspapers alike have played on this penalty narrative in the aftermath of the Hibs match.
Goodwin has wasted no time in ramping up the pressure ahead of the match but it’s earned a scathing response from the Rangers faithful:
https://twitter.com/kerrbear1988/status/1343971289455865867
https://twitter.com/BC7RFC/status/1343973594964099074
https://twitter.com/Renegade_uk100/status/1343972152484257794
https://twitter.com/Gordygfl/status/1343972649224040457
Whatever way you come at it these comments suggest that professional referees are in some way helping Rangers by not awarding penalties against them.
In many ways it’s difficult to tell the difference between Jim Goodwin and this angry Celtic fan on Clyde Superscoreboard the other evening.
