Alves left raging by tactics of Steelmen

RANGERS captain Bruno Alves hit out at Motherwell’s roughhouse tactics and claimed referee Steven McLean’s leniency allowed it to be open season on the Ibrox players.

The veteran Portuguese international was left raging by McLean only showing Ryan Bowman a yellow card after catching countryman and central defensive partner Fabio Cardoso in the face with his elbow.

Cardoso later had his nose broken by Bowman’s elbow, but the Motherwell attacker escaped further punishment from the match official.

And the much-travelled Alves, who has won league titles in Portugal, Turkey, and Russia, slammed the ‘unacceptable’ way Stephen Robinson’s team approached their 2-0 Betfred Cup semi-final win that heaps pressure on Pedro Caixinha.

The 35-year-old said: ‘That was not good behaviour. I am disappointed about it. It is not the way to play football. It’s too much.

‘Do I think the referee could have done better? I think so. The first action of the game was the elbow in Fabio’s face (by Bowman). After that, everything can happen on the pitch.

‘It doesn’t matter if it was deliberate or not. He opened Fabio’s mouth up and that is not a good thing.

‘This was just the beginning and then later Fabio broke his nose. It was not acceptable.

‘Even the first Motherwell goal was too much. They didn’t allow our goalkeeper to come out of his goal.

‘This has to change because we all want to play football.

‘I am frustrated about what happened because this kind of behaviour is unacceptable.

‘We need to protect our players. The referees need to pay more attention to this kind of behaviour.

‘Everybody makes mistakes. Even the players make mistakes. But, when we players make mistakes, there are consequences. Today was just really disappointing for me and for the team.

‘I don’t speak so much about the referee because he has a difficult job. But today was too much for me.’

Alves himself was lucky to escape a red card when he kicked out at Louis Moult and the two-goal striker appeared to have a niggle back, sparking dramatics from the Rangers defender who clutched his face when little contacted seemed to have been made.

As it was, McLean showed Moult a yellow card and the Portuguese believed his angry conduct stemmed from Motherwell’s physical approach.

‘This is what happens when this kind of behaviour is allowed to happen from the beginning,’ countered Alves. ‘Did I get frustrated? I’m not saying that, but I’m jumping to the ball and somebody is always blocking me.

‘You get tired of this and then you start to react.

‘You start off playing football, then you are playing another game. I am sad about what happened.

‘Motherwell played physical, long balls today. That is their game. They work on this.

‘But they deserved to win today because they scored two goals and defended quite well.

‘It was not a good day for us at all, but we will keep on working hard.’