Steven Gerrard’s view after the Hearts game on most things was spot on, and no wonder given the circumstances. Yet, there was one thing he got totally wrong.
Rangers went to the top of the Premiership today. The buzz around the club has been slowly growing once again since the Betfred Cup semi-final defeat to Aberdeen. Now? Rangers are at the peak of the league table, and don’t look like giving it up anytime soon.
Today’s display in the 2-1 win at Hearts was like a performance of champions. There’s still such a long way to go this season, with plenty of twists and turns ahead, but Rangers have every right to feel confident about themselves.
Yet, there was one thing Gerrard said post-match that was totally incorrect. Touching on the officiating today, the Gers manager said the following.
“I thought the officials today were good for both teams.”
No elaboration necessary
Granted, the Rangers manager didn’t say any more than that. Instead, he chose to only state that he believed the standard of refereeing this afternoon to be satisfactory.
Whether this is tongue in cheek from the Rangers manager is difficult to say. Gerrard has a fantastic poker-face, and will be wanting to focus more on the meaning of the result itself.
Despite that, however, today’s officiating showed how poor the standard of refereeing in Scotland truly is. Alfredo Morelos and Gareth McAuley both should’ve had penalties for grappling in the box. For Hearts, they’ll be furious at the linesman’s decision to deem Morelos as on-side for the winning goal.
Scott Arfield’s sending off was perhaps justified, but will likely cause debate. Bobby Madden often seemed to lose control of the game, and was far too inconsistent with his decision-making.
Both teams had real gripes post-match. Craig Levein was far too tribal and biased post-match, but his anger with the officiating was clear. Rangers had plenty of gripes of their own, but didn’t show it post-match.
It’s wise for the club to steer clear of this kind of chat for now, especially given the ongoing dispute between the club and the SFA.
Regardless, today was yet another example of just how dreadful refereeing in Scotland is these days.
