There were very few happy Rangers fans yesterday at the end of their clash against Dundee at Dens Park. The Gers were held to a 1-1 draw against the ten men of Dundee, and it was a day to forget for the Ibrox side. However, it could, and should, have gone very differently as Kyle Lafferty had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside just after the half an hour mark, leaving the fans fuming.
32' Lafferty puts the ball in the back of the net but the offside flag is raised. Still 1-1 at Dens Park.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) December 9, 2018
The quality of officiating in Scottish football has come into question over the last few weeks and this decision to chalk off Kyle Lafferty’s perfectly good goal will only add fuel to the fire. Chris Sutton has come out in support of introducing VAR into the Scottish Premier League, something that BT Sport has offered to do if given the TV rights to Scottish game, although that won’t do much to give Lafferty his goal and the Gers all three points.
The game yesterday was huge for Rangers. They simply had to win the clash at Dens Park to stay level on points with their Old Firm rivals Celtic, and the fact that they could only manage a 1-1 draw left the fans fuming at full-time. The result meant that Gerrard’s side are now two points behind Celtic having played one game more, meaning that they could go five points clear of the Gers. When sounded out like that, the decision to incorrectly chalk off Lafferty’s goal now looks like a much bigger one.
You can read the Bluenoses’ thoughts on the Lafferty disallowed goal here:
https://twitter.com/TLR0272i/status/1071766990577111041
https://twitter.com/SwainySpurs/status/1071767060638851072
https://twitter.com/g2mcc/status/1071772778167193601
https://twitter.com/bubblybeaumont/status/1071767221456826368
Officials having a total mare for both sides
— George Dunn (@GDunn54) December 9, 2018
Clearly onside
— Earl Grimly (@EarlGrimly) December 9, 2018
Definitely a goal
— James watt (@wimjot) December 9, 2018
Clearly On Side!!
— HammerTime (@HammerTime0961) December 9, 2018
The Bluenoses were livid as they had a perfectly good goal ruled out and they’ll be hoping that the standard of officiating in Scotland can improve drastically very quickly.
