There was a ‘huge let-off’ for Calvin Bassey and Rangers during their Scottish Premiership clash with Hearts on Sunday, in the words of BBC Sport’s Colin Moffat.
The lowdown
Rangers won 5-0 at Ibrox after a double from Alfredo Morelos and strikes from Glen Kamara, Scott Arfield and Fashion Sakala, moving back within a point of title rivals Celtic after The Hoops’ own 4-0 win against Motherwell earlier on Sunday.
But perhaps things could have played out differently had Bassey, making his 15th league start in succession, been punished for his error at 1-0.
Three minutes into the second half, the Nigerian defender saw a backpass intercepted by Cammy Devlin, but the Hearts man fired his shot off target.
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Moffat, who was providing live text commentary for BBC Sport, called the backpass ‘woefully short’.
He added that ‘Devlin has to do a lot better with that gift’, having let Bassey and Rangers off the hook.
The verdict
In general, it was a mixed afternoon for Bassey against the Edinburgh outfit.
In the build-up to the first goal, he’d picked out Ryan Kent with what Heart & Hand called a ‘defence-splitting pass’.
But over the course of the game, he gave possession away 31 times – ten more than anybody else on the pitch.
Not one of his four crosses found a team-mate, and he also lost half of his 14 ground duels.
Bassey was also shown a yellow card, contributing to a match rating of 6.9/10.
In other news, Rangers have been gifted a contract boost.
