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.
The latest
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.
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