MARKED MAN
Ryan: Outcry over Gers semi saw refs jump on my back .. now yellow card count has gone through roof
RYAN BOWMAN reckons Rangers’ moaning made him a marked man for referees after their stormy Betfred Cup semi-final in October.
Now the Motherwell striker is hoping for a fair crack of the whip from the officials if he muscles his way into the Well team for today’s Lanarkshire derby – a game that always proves to be a physical encounter.
Bowman accidentally broke Gers defender Fabio Cardoso’s nose and was the branded a thug and likened to a WWE wrestler.
Bowman admits he was affected by the outcry. But unfortunately for him so too it seems were Scotland’s referees. He said: “My bookings have gone up ever since that day.
“I’ve had four or five yellows since the semi-final and I think that’s because referees are looking out for me more than they were before those comments came out in the press.
“In the first game after the semi against Dundee I noticed it a lot. Every time I went up the players were on the floor.
“Whether the manager has told them to do that I don’t know. But it’s part and parcel of the game, the dark arts of football.
“But I can’t let that affect me, I just have to concentrate on playing my own game.”
Ironically for Bowman a fracture of his own, suffered in another aerial challenge in training, sidelined him for over a month – leading to plenty of banter from his team-mates.
But now he’s back playing and eager to re-establish himself in the Well team.
Following the departure of his strike partner Louis Moult, Bowman accepts he is back to square one in trying to win back his place in the team ahead of an increasingly successful partnership between January signings Curtis Main and Nadir Ciftci.
He said: “I got a bit of stick for that injury as well. I headed the back of Charles Dunne’s head and broke my eye socket so I was out for four or five weeks with that.
“Now I’ve come back I just need to work my way back into the team now.
“It’s like starting from scratch again with Louis gone. With Curtis and Nadir coming in there’s a whole new partnership and they’re doing well at the minute.
“So I’ve got to be patient and work myself back into the team.
“A few players have said that me and Curtis would look good together up front so if that chance comes we’ve got to take it.”
Perhaps that chance will come as early as today in a derby fixture with Accies that has had no shortage of the kind of rough and tumble physical football Bowman relishes.
He added: “All the boys are looking forward to it. If you weren’t looking forward to it then you’re in the wrong job.
“We know what to expect. It’s going to be a real battle, a proper scrap. But we have a good record against them so hopefully we can carry that on.
“It’s a game that suits me – strong, physical, that’s pretty much my game.
“We have a lot of physical players in the team, not just me. So a game like this suits us.”