Gers pass big test but refs need to make grade
IT seems the rugby won’t just be reserved for Murrayfield this week. The man-handling of Alfredo Morelos by Hibernian’s Lewis Stevenson at Ibrox on Wednesday was certainly eye-opening in more ways than one.
That Stevenson didn’t even get a talking to, let alone a booking was astonishing. But the way Morelos handled the situation was telling too. Let’s face it, there’s been a huge amount of publicity surrounding the Colombian this week and there are things that have been said and done that I won’t be commenting on until we get facts.
I talked at length about Morelos in last week’s column but it’s hard not to discuss him again. Every week there seems to be something.
But on Wednesday night, in a high-stakes environment, I thought he controlled himself very well. If that had been last year I think he would have jumped in and retaliated at the player. But he continues to learn … and that’s good news for Rangers.
I’ve said it before but I do feel sorry for Morelos. He’ll feel the whole world is against him. If I was over in Colombia and the same thing was happening to me, how would I feel? Well, I know how I’d feel – I’d want to get out of there.
When it seems that everyone is on your back, you’re not getting a break, everything you do is scrutinised and people are trying to tear you apart then I know what I’d do. But he’s built like a tank and probably built like that inside too.
He’s getting up and walking away now from contentious incidents too. The others are helping as well. I think it was Greg Stewart who ran up and put his arm round him on Wednesday, got him out of the way and calmed him down.
That’s a good development. Rangers can’t afford to be losing any more games and they can’t afford to lose Morelos either.
What Wednesday’s match also highlighted is the fact that our referees have to get their act together. It didn’t matter what team you supported you were asking “why on earth was a yellow card not brought out?” when Stevenson performed that rugby tackle.
The standard of officiating, in my opinion, has certainly gone down. I’m not saying there is a bias, no way. I just think we have some poor, poor referees who are changing games.
Think of John Beaton up at Aberdeen who apologised to Steven Gerrard and said he should have given a penalty? What good does that do a manager when you’ve just dropped two points?
Back in my day, you were allowed to talk to referees. You could say “oh c’mon ref” and he would come back and explain why he gave it or why he didn’t.
There was much more come and go and communication. There was a ref once who would refuse to give me a penalty and I pleaded that it was a stonewall one. He would just turn to me and say “hey, dry your eyes”. You sort of laughed, accepted it and got on with the game. You were allowed to say things. Nowadays you almost get a yellow card for shaking your head.
In the end, of course, all that mattered was that Rangers got the three points. And in the current situation, that’s all the fans are looking for.
The thing with Celtic is that when they are not firing on all cylinders, they still win games and that’s something they do very well indeed. Rangers have been going through a sticky period of late but maybe Wednesday can be the start of something.
For Ianis Hagi to come into that pressure as a youngster, embrace the situation and thrive was terrific. What a difference that dressing room would have been after a win instead of a draw. For the fans going home, they could have been saying “that’s it finished”. Now the hopes are still alive.
Every game is going to be a cup final for Rangers and they have to treat it like that. Hopefully this sticky patch has got that into the heads of the players.
It’s pointless a scout going to watch a team the week before because they’ll be a different team when they play Rangers or Celtic. Hearts, for instance, got all the praise and plaudits the other week, for their win and then they are 3-0 down after an hour to Kilmarnock the other night.
Jock Wallace would always say “first, you win the battle and if you do that then you’ve got a great chance of winning the war”. That’s what Rangers have to do, they have to make things happen.
The Celtic players have seen it and done it. Our lads haven’t won a dicky. If they are here to win trophies then they know now what they need to do in every game.
Rangers can thank their lucky stars that they got a late winner. They are still in the title race and hopefully that spurs them on.
AND ANOTHER THING
I’M actually a wee bit disappointed that Kenny Miller has called time on his playing days as I think he could still do a job.
He’s still as fit as anyone in that league even though he’s over 40 he still has the knack of scoring and has a terrific striker’s instinct.
He’s been at the highest level all his career and good on him for lasting as long as he has.
People have been referencing the chance he missed for Partick Thistle against Celtic in the Cup but what about all the ones he didn’t miss during a great career? That outweighs anything and his record speaks volumes.
I wish him all the very best.
I think we have some poor, poor referees