It was a night of shocking performances in Rangers dismal 2-0 defeat against Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium.
A manager who guided us to a European final by being flexible, imaginative and brave seemed to be caught in the headlights and doubled down on a formation that wasn’t working with personnel who didn’t look as though they either understood the game plan or were capable of implementing it – arguably Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s worst night as the Gers gaffer, and that includes Parkhead last season.
Then there were the players. Usually, you can pick out one or two, at least, who might get pass marks but on this occasion not one of the looked like thy had played at that level before and beaten the likes of Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and came a penalty shoot-out away from European glory.
We needed someone who was going to be inspirational, there was no Alfredo Morelos – so often the talisman – or Ryan Kent, our usually effective press looked impotent without the winger in the side, but despite our difficulties, for one man to produce the worst moment of the night took some doing by referee Irfan Peljto.
To award a late penalty – that could cost Rangers £30-40million – was incredible, a decision that would have been bad in real time made worse by him looking at several inconclusive replays and then incorrectly applying a law that clearly states if the ball is deflected off a team-mate then handball can’t be awarded – the one law officials should know inside and out.
The Rangers players have a second chance to redeem themselves, unfortunately they will be starting a goal further behind than they should have been – they dug the hole for themselves but the ref helped to push them into it.