The reason Rangers debated penalty vs Hibs was disallowed as Ibrox star lets slip ref explanation

Rangers winger Scott Wright has detailed referee David Dickinson's explanation for ruling out his rebound strike during Saturday's 3-1 Scottish Premiership win over Hibs at Ibrox.

Captain James Tavernier's missed penalty was pounced on in a flash by Wright, who thought he'd broken the deadlock only for his celebrations to be cut short as VAR intervened. Wright was penalised for straying into the box too early and he has revealed what Dickinson told him was the reason behind his disallowed goal.

Sportscene pundits James McFadden and Neil McCann felt the Light Blues should have at least been awarded a second chance to take the debated spot-kick on the basis that a couple of Hibs players had also entered the area too early.

The penalty was eventually awarded by the officials after Hibs defender Nectarios Triantis caught John Souttar in the face with a flailing arm. But playmaker Wright has confirmed he won't torture himself over the decision after being told his TOE was the reason behind Dickinson's call.

"I don’t want to torture myself by looking at it," he confessed. "I asked the ref at the time if it was close and he said it was close. It's just one of those things. It was frustrating for me because I want to add stuff to my game, but that is not going to define our performance. I can help the team in more ways than one.

"The fact we didn’t let that decision derail us shows the character of the team we are trying to build. It is the team that the manager wants us to look like. It's a bit frustrating. We think we’ve scored, fans think we’ve scored and then there's the wait for VAR. Even with the penalty there was a wait for VAR. It's just trying to get that rhythm about the game.

"Obviously it breaks it up a wee bit, then we go 1-0 up through Tav, who scored a great goal. We were disappointed to lose the goal just before half-time but again it showed the character of the team to get another goal just before half-time ourselves.

"As a player you just want these VAR decisions to be quick. There is going to be human error regardless. If someone is having to make a call on it, whether it is a referee with VAR or without it. But it is for the fans in the stadium as well. They are waiting. It is not as if they have any idea what is happening.

"My goal went in and I didn’t realise there was any problem with it. Then you see VAR check on the big screen. It is one of these things. It is a bit of a roll of the dice to be honest. If we looked into all these things you would probably be able to pick out hundreds of them. Unfortunately for me it didn’t roll my way on Saturday."