Rangers star narrowly avoids season-ender in ‘crazy’ incident as pundit winces over crunching lunge

Rangers midfielder John Lundstram could have had his season ended in Sunday's 2-0 Scottish Cup over Hibs claims a former Gers favourite.

Ex-Ibrox captain Barry Ferguson was highly critical of the 'crazy' tackle made by Hibs youngster Nathan Moriah-Welsh on the 30-year-old Rangers midfielder that saw him receive a straight red and believes he is lucky to only be facing a suspension.

"It is a crazy challenge. It is a red card all day," Ferguson told GoRadio. "The good thing about it is he never connected with Lundstram. If he did it could have been a season ending injury.

"For me, all day a red card. It was a rush of blood and I could see it when the ball broke and Lundstram took a heavy touch. There is no need to dive in like that with your two feet. Definitely a red card in my eyes. He's just lucky he never connected. I don't see why anybody can have any arguments that it wasn't a red card" added the radio pundit.

Hibs ended Sunday's game with nine men after both Moriah-Welsh and Jonathan Obita were given red cards in the Scottish Cup loss and head coach Nick Montgomery didn't agree with the decision, saying: "Nathan is just 21-years-old, he’s new to first team football. And, to be honest, it was right in front of me. I’ve got a lot of respect for John Lundstram. He’s a top, top player. But I though the way he went down, Nathan didn’t catch him.

“I’ve seen that one back and he’s gone across him to try to block him playing a ball down the line, probably knock it out for a throw-in. But John has gone down. And the referee was very quick to give the card. To be honest, I was really surprised he didn’t go to the VAR monitor to have a look, considering it was three metres from where the incident happened" added Montgomery.

Some agreed with the Hibees head coach that the red was not deserved for Moriah-Welsh but Ferguson said he can't understand that viewpoint at all and claimed that the player himself knew the tackle would see him get his marching orders despite apparently protesting him innocence.

"It was reckless and the boy knew himself. I know he was putting his hands up and saying 'oh I didn't touch him', but he knew himself that it was a red card all day." added the radio pundit.