Old habits die hard, well for Allan McGregor, despite being the oldest player – probably – in the SPFL, he proved that he is still more than happy to play to the gallery.
It was a hard watch on Sunday and the veteran Gers stopper will have been equally as frustrated as a virtual observer himself aside from one good save in the first half. His biggest issue was keeping himself warm.
At the other end, Partick Thistle’s Jamie Sneddon was an absolute banker to be yellow carded, it was only a surprise that it took as long as the 82nd minute for him to be booked such was his time wasting throughout the game and it obviously didn’t go unnoticed.
On more than one occasion, Sneddon theatrically dived to the ground when taking comfortable catches so, with Rangers in front, McGregor decided to see how it felt with the shoe on the other foot.
Not sportsmanship from #Rangers McGregor, more gamesmanship and even oneupmanship aimed at the Jags goalie #ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/r5EFwSOeFF
— Stewart Weir (@sweirz) February 12, 2023
McGregor was also clearly irked at having to concede another goal when Michael Beale ordered his side to let Thistle back into the game and when Scott Tiffoney decided to try to walk the ball in to the net rather than just passing it in once he got into the box, he was met with more than a little resistance.
When you play football with your da pic.twitter.com/1R82fu8R2Z
— . (@LundstramLoyall) February 12, 2023
This hasn’t gone down well with Charlie Nicholas though – shock – with the former Celtic striker reaching for his typewriter to explain why McGregor’s behaviour was unbecoming of such a professional and took the gloss of a creditable act of sportsmanship, via The Daily Record:
“Tiffoney ran unopposed up the pitch until he got to McGregor, who decided to make life as difficult as he could for the striker to net past him. Why did he have to go through the whole rigmarole? Some people might have found it funny but I thought it was pretty pathetic from McGregor.”
Really Charlie? Tiffoney didn’t have to go that close before shooting and McGregor hardly stopped him from scoring. It’s incredible what certain members of the Scottish media will get themselves worked about but, if there is a way that they can try and turn a positive Rangers story into a negative one, they will find it – or make one up.
I would imagine that everyone, apart from Charlie Nicholas, found it funny.
Everyone except Nicholas , Brazil and Sutton probably found it funny .What do they all have in common ? Lets just be polite and say an anti Rangers agenda . Nicholas actually wrote that McGregor did everything he could to make it difficult for Tiffoney . Really ? We know Allan is getting old and not as good as he was but I`m pretty sure he could have done more than dangle a foot in his general direction .It was obvious he was just been madman Greegs and having a laugh but these Rangers haters just won`t see it that way for their own reasons.