DISGUSTING

McCann fury at Alves for crude foul on Wighton

NEIL McCANN last night slammed Bruno Alves for the ‘disgusting’ foul on his young Dundee comeback star Craig Wighton.

The Dens Park manager was appalled by the Portuguese defender scything down the 20-year-old within seconds of replacing Ross McCrorie at Ibrox.

Wighton, a visiting substitute in the 4-0 defeat for Dundee, was making only his second appearance of the season since a nine-month recovery from a serious knee injury.

In a Scottish top-flight season riddled with crude foul controversy, McCann (left) believed Alves should have been sent off with the game at 1-0. Simon Murray’s subsequent free-kick missed by inches and Rangers went on to achieve a comfortable victory.

McCann raged: ‘I have to say that was a disgusting challenge from Bruno Alves. A joke. I’ve got a boy who is just returning from a cruciate ligament injury and that is a scissor action. It is almost thigh high.

‘I am furious with it. It is a yellow card, could easily have been red in my mind. I

did an interview the other day when I said the game is not too tough but I am all for protection.

‘It was a shocking challenge.’

Meanwhile, Rangers boss Graeme Murty felt his team were hard done by when yellow was shown to Alfredo Morelos for simulation.

Contact was clearly made as goalkeeper Elliot Parish was forced off injured after the clash but referee Greg Aitken perhaps deemed the Colombian guilty of initiating the incident to try to win a penalty.

That caution rules Morelos out of the first game after the split on the weekend of April 21/22, though Rangers could consider an appeal.

‘I think we all feel a degree of injustice about the booking,’ said Murty. ‘The goalkeeper has unfortunately felt the impact of his foot.

‘How a referee can then judge that a dive when the evidence is there for all to see is quite beyond me.

‘I thought the decision was ludicrous.’