Rangers star airs the refereeing bugbear that gets on his nerves as he tops painful Ibrox list

Todd Cantwell says refereeing inconsistency is leaving him perplexed as the Rangers star tops an Ibrox stat list.

The playmaker will hope to make a telling difference to Sunday’s pivotal derby with Celtic. John Beaton is the man tasked with officiating the often stormy encounter that could go a way to deciding the Premiership title winner, but Cantwell has already had his fair whack of punishment dealt out this term.

He has played 23 Premiership matches this term and drew 40 fouls, the most of any Rangers player. Cantwell is aware of the attention he creates with his style of play on the park but ever-changing calls from refs leave him confused.

The 26-year-old said: “I am the sort of player who probably invites tackles with my dribbling and the way I like to play. Do I think that some teams look at it as an opportunity to try and stop me? Yeah, I do. But it only works if it stops me and I don’t think it has.

“The manager has made it clear that he doesn’t want to change the way I play, but at times I can maybe be a little bit smarter and protect myself as well. That is another learning curve for me as well.

“Over-physical is a hard one. I don’t think it is over-physical. I think some of the tackles and some of the decisions are questionable. I have always found from my personal experience that the first tasty tackle should always be booked because it sets the tone and shows ‘you are not getting away with that’.

“The problem that I struggle with is the consistency of that because sometimes the tackle will be booked instantly and sometimes it won’t. Mine don’t tend to be yellow cards. It tends to be a yellow card for me if I am on the other side.”