Former referee fires stinging accusation at Rangers star after Ibrox incident & getting heated with Hibs foes
Rangers versus Hibs has had the eyes of a former referee cast upon it.
One Rangers star had a busy Saturday afternoon - with a former referee hitting him with a stinging blast.
The Light Blues suffered more Ibrox woe in losing 2-0 to Hibs in the Premiership. Goals by Dylan Levitt and Martin Boyle sealed a comfortable away victory and a fifth home defeat on the trot for the club in Govan.
Cyriel Dessers missed a number of chances in the game but got involved in many a battle with defenders such as Rocky Bushiri and Jack Iredale. A couple of run ins with the Easter Road pair in particular have been picked up by former Premier League ref Keith Hackett.
Rangers star hit with blast
The first was for when Dessers was quite blocked off the ball by when attempting to run into the opposition box past Bushiri. It was an incident that went unpunished but could have resulted in a goalscoring chance with the game at 1-0.
Hackett said to Ibrox News: “There is no doubt that the illegal use of the arm to unfairly impede his opponent should have resulted in a free-kick and yellow card to Bushiri. The VAR under the criteria is unable to intervene.”
While perhaps unlucky in that scenario, Hackett was less than complimentary in the second bout. As Iredale challenged him inside the box, Dessers hit the deck in quick time with both his foe and Bushiri letting him know about what they felt about it. Hackett feels referee Don Robertson was one person the striker was trying to deceive.
He added: “Looking at the challenge, it is evident that Dessers has gone to ground looking for the award of a penalty kick. The referee decided to take no action and VAR did not intervene. Sadly, in these situations, when referees are satisfied that there is no offence to intervene for the award of a penalty kick, this then needs to be the trigger point to yellow card the attacker for an act of simulation.”
Dessers gives it back
While the Hibs pair gave Dessers their mind, the striker also gave a bit back as things got heated during Rangers vs Hibs. Iredale said: “I've got a really good relationship with Rocky. Just like I was speaking about Boyle, giving me confidence at the top end, I've got massive confidence playing alongside Rocky, because I know that he can bail the whole team out with his physicality, his power, his presence, his energy. I thought he was immense again, like he has been for us. It's been something me and Rocky enjoy, we really like to get stuck in. Credit to Dessers, he was trying to give it back as well, but me and Rocky came out on top.
“I think we just built on what’s been building over the last 15 or 16 league games. Everyone to a man was brilliant. We started brightly, we were confident on the ball and got our reward. But there's a long way to go. From now until the end of the season, we're under no illusions as to how hard that's going to be. So, one game at a time. Saturday was a massive result and a massive game. But it's finished now, and full focus on Dundee, which is going to be a completely different test for us next Sunday.”