Kevin Clancy praised for handling of Rangers v Motherwell penalty flashpoint as Danny Rohl complaint shut down
The Rangers boss felt his side should have been awarded a spot-kick for a Lukas Fadinger tackle on Djeidi Gassama in the first-half
Kevin Clancy has earned high praise for taking “decisive” action to award Rangers a free-kick rather than a penalty in Sunday’s agonising 3-2 Premiership defeat at home to Motherwell.
The referee was faced with a tough call in the first-half at Ibrox when Lukas Fadinger brought down Djeidi Gassama near the edge of the box shortly after the Well’ midfielder has given the visitors an early 16th-minute lead.
Clancy was in close proximity at the time, awarding a free-kick, which Light Blues head coach Rohl claimed was the wrong decision in his post-match interview.
The official’s on-field call was backed up following a VAR review and now former English Premier League whistler Dermot Gallagher has offered his take on the incident by stating how impressed he was with Clancy’s handling of the situation.
Speaking on this week's edition of Ref Watch on Sky Sports News, presenter Hayley McQueen described it as a “very tight” call before asking Gallagher for his verdict.
He said: “I thought the referee was really, really good, wasn't he?” Gallagher admitted. “He's on top of it, and he points to where it happens. When you see the replay, it does actually happen where he points to - so he's done really, really well.
“You look and think the line belongs to the goalkeeper, so it's a penalty. Is it on the line? But when you look, the foul occurs just outside of it. Excellent. It's all about the point of contact and he’s in the most perfect position to make the judgement. He’s so decisive.”
“This is where the referee has done really well. If you look where he's moved to, he's got the perfect position to make this judgment. What I really like is that before anyone could moan at him, he points to exactly where it happened - he's so decisive.”
Ex-England international Jay Bothroyd was also on the review panel and commented: “A great decision. Very good from the referee, he's seen that, and he's right on the spot. Obviously, it's a decisive decision as well. When you're in that situation as the attacker, you're trying to get your body in. It is a foul, there's no doubt, but it's outside of the box.”
What Rangers boss Danny Rohl said
Rohl fumed: “The foul clearly on the line. His foot is inside but they didn’t look. Maybe I’m wrong but please look back and you’ll see I’m right with this.
“In some moments you felt the 50-50 situation was a little bit on the Motherwell side, and this is also football. But I don’t want to make excuses, we still had enough chances to turn the game.”