Even former Rangers striker Kris Boyd believed that Alfredo Morelos should have been sent off after stamping on Ryan Porteous’s knee in the opening period of last night’s game at Easter Road.
Incredibly Morelos wasn’t even booked by referee Kevin Clancy who was in the perfect position to see but later told Jack Ross that it had been a ‘tangle of legs.’
To rub salt into Hibs’ wounds Morelos scored the only goal of the game five minutes after the restart to consolidate Rangers’ place at the top of the table and it now seem certain that they will win the title and stop Celtic’s 10-in-a-row dream.
The Columbian international now must wait to see whether there is any retrospective punishment.
Boyd, covering the game for Sky, said: “It’s a red card. There is no getting away from it. He is very I don’t understand why he needs to do it. I can’t work it out. People could tell me that he’s trying to get out the road of him – he’s not. You can see it right there. He is very lucky to still be on this pitch.
Fellow pundit James McFadden agreed and added: “Absolutely, and Kevin Clancy couldn’t be in a better position. I’ve no idea why he hasn’t managed to see it, and Alfredo Morelos is very lucky to still be on the pitch.”
Hibs captain Darren McGregor (pictured) added: “I was telling the referee that he’s not stood on Porteous to hurt him but he had stood on him.
“ I seen it with my own eyes. He could easily have stepped over him so if that constitutes a red card then it’s a red card.
“ The referee said that he didn’t think it was intentional and he never meant to put his foot there but we all know the game and where and when you can put your foot in and to me it did look as though he could have placed it on the ground but he placed it on Ryan’s leg.”
Jack Ross said: “I just asked the referee whet he thought of it (Morelos stamp) which had a very obvious impact on the game and it’s a red card. It’s very simple.
“I’m not going to be over the top about it because it’s happened to one of my players this season in this fixture so I’ll be dignified about it and say it’s quite simply a red card and that’s it but it’s been missed and it’s a mistake by the official and so be it.
“He said he thought it was a tangle of legs but in his defence he has seen it in real time very quickly but it’s a mistake however we should have defended the goal better so the player that scores the goal shouldn’t be on the pitch but it happened and we should have defended it properly.”
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard claimed that he had not seen the incident because he wanted to get out early for his post match interview as Sky Sports presenter Luke Shanley looked cold but he insisted that he would watch the incident on TV.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
