It might only be three little words but, there is nothing that enrages Scottish football more than….
”PENALTY TO RANGERS!!”
When James Tavernier scored his 50th Rangers spot kick against Kilmarnock, the score was already 2-0 and the decision was one that was pretty straight forward – even for Willie Collum.
🎯 @James_Tavernier‘s 50th goal from the penalty spot for #RangersFC. pic.twitter.com/D2nmUNhOMb
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) March 4, 2023
An outstretched arm, time to react from when the ball was played and no deflection off own body or the opponent, it ticked every box apart from it being deliberate and yet….
No sooner had Kilmarnock TV’s commentators quipped – hilariously – that we had made it to 40 minutes without Rangers being awarded a penalty than the inevitable happened.
Cue incandescent rage.
You could almost hear them desperately trying to find a body part that wasn’t the arm that the ball hit in an attempt to make it look like some sort of conspiracy – like Celtic fans, the rest of Scottish football has told themselves something often enough and are now starting to believe it.
It was a penalty, and again, what was the perfect example of how VAR should be used – the referee had poor angle so VAR told them to rewatch – has turned into a Rangers witch hunt.
VAR 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/eF0lA9X2Ik
— Jas Boyd (@Jas72Boyd) March 5, 2023
Unsurprisingly, there was nothing from the same commentators when a Kilmarnock player hitched a lift on Connor Goldson’s shoulders for their goal, you would have thought that the ability to hang in the air for three seconds maybe gave things away. It looked more like a line out lift in rugby.
Scottish football, the only place where an obvious penalty becomes contentious, if it is awarded to Rangers that is.