Rangers were always going to be up against it, needing to go to Parkhead to beat Celtic to have any hope of winning the Scottish Premiership title.
What doesn’t help was a referee being appointed who the club has already openly questioned and criticised on more than one occasion – Willie Collum is only human, and it is naive to think that this didn’t affect him in one way, or another.
The SFA’s senior whistler has a long history of high-profile howlers and several bizarre incidents involving Rangers on his record, seeing him flash a red card for John Lundstram wasn’t a surprise.
Willie Collum has a history of not doing Rangers any favours
Collum has only been seen at Ibrox once since his performance as VAR in the festive Old Firm derby.
Every man and their dog could see that Alistair Johnston has handled the ball in the box under pressure from Abdallah Sima and yet Nick Walsh wasn’t asked to take a second look at the monitor.
In short, Collum had refereed the game from the VAR room instead of letting the on-field referee make the decision.
Rangers were far from impressed with how the incident played out and released a statement that didn’t miss it’s target:
“Rangers have learned no penalty was awarded as the VAR official, Willie Collum, concluded a handball offence had not occurred in the first half.
“While the club and most observers are astonished by this ‘professional’ view, we remain perplexed and concerned about the Scottish FA’s motivations for sharing an offside image with broadcasters during the second half, when this was not the original reason why the penalty was not awarded”.
It was an incident that left Philippe Clement perplexed as to how the officials came to that decision.
Collum strikes again at Parkhead
With Rangers back in the game at 2-1 and in the ascendency, Lundstram was quick to pressure Alistair Johnston, who had been given a torrid time by Fabio Silva in the first-half.
At full speed, it looked like a good challenge from Lundstram as the Celtic right-back stepped across the Rangers midfielder.
In slow motion and in the still images, the Gers number four catches Johnston on the ankle.
After an initial yellow card, Collum – unlike when he was on VAR – was sent to the monitor and decided to upgrade the punishment to a red.
A decision he couldn’t make quickly enough.
The question is – was it a clear and obvious error?
Yes, it’s a foul, but Collum saw the incident clearly and at full speed and made a judgement.
A braver referee sticks to their guns and backs their original decision, there was nothing in the replays that he hadn’t already seen.
Coincidentally, Collum was quite happy to stick to his original call when Matt O’Riley made the most of Mohamed Diomande brushing his leg.
Two big decision, both went against Rangers.
