Sport: Gerrard says Rangers victims of poor decisions ‘for seasons’
● Ibrox boss makes surprise claim as he criticises the red card for striker Morelos as undeserved in a dramatic draw at Pittodrie
Steven Gerrard claimed Rangers have been victims of poor refereeing decisions “for seasons” after watching his team play for most of the afternoon with ten men in a dramatic Premiership opener against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Alfredo Morelos was sent off after only 12 minutes for aiming a retaliatory kick at Aberdeen defender Scott Mckenna, before Rangers took the lead through captain James Tavernier’s 30th-minute penalty.
Gerrard, who felt Morelos’ dismissal was harsh, was also unhappy that Aberdeen defender Dominic Ball was not sent off for the challenge on Josh Windass which conceded the spot-kick.
Substitute debutant Bruce Anderson denied Gerrard victory in his first league game as Rangers manager with a 93rd-minute equaliser for the home side.
While still content with Rangers’ display, which he insisted “proved” they are a better team than Aberdeen, much of Gerrard’s post-match focus was on what he viewed as unjust treatment by the match officials.
“It seems like the world is against us today,” said Gerrard. “But we’ll make sure we get better for that. We’ll make sure we play better and try to put results to bed, because it looks like some more decisions will go against us as the season goes on.
“It’s not just today, it’s been happening for a while. It’s been happening for a good while. I believe it’s been happening for seasons.
“That’s my opinion, just my opinion. I’ve watched footage (from previous seasons), yeah. Look, I don’t think we ever get anything to go for us. Everything we have seen today is about Rangers. So someone should give me answers on that.”
Gerrard sought an explanation from referee Kevin Clancy and his assistant, David Mcgeachie, after the match for the contentious decisions but was left unsatisfied, albeit while admitting Morelos had left himself open to the possibility of a red card. “I think when you do stuff like that, when you react like that, you leave officials with decisions to make,” said Gerrard.
“So we will speak to Alfredo about the part he has played in it. But we feel hard done by because we felt he was provoked twice with violent barges from Scott Mckenna. No way in the world was his kickout violent. So we didn’t think he deserved a red.
“What’s disappointing from our point of view is that the whole incident was two or three seconds but the assistant only saw one second of it. So he sees Alfredo’s instant in one second but not the two barges in the other two seconds.
“The assistant said he only saw one second out of the three with the Alfredo incident,