Rangers are, rightly, contesting the red card issued to John Lundstram in the 2-2 draw against Hibs at the weekend, a decision by Willie Collum that, without doubt, changed the game.
It’s not the first time that Collum has been involved in controversy surrounding Rangers either and this appears to be a point that the club is raising with the SFA as revealed by The Athletic:
“Rangers have expressed concerns about the officiating of Willie Collum to the Scottish FA after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Hibernian.
“Collum showed two straight red cards to John Lundstram and Alfredo Morelos but Rangers are challenging the two-game ban for Lundstram after Collum filed his match report today.”
The article, by Jordan Campbell, adds that Collum’s previous sending off of Daniel Candeias, when he saw red for blowing a kiss, is further evidence of his ability and that’s without mentioning Alfredo Morelos’s 12th minute sending off on the opening day in 2018 when, as fourth official, he told Kevin Clancy – shock – who was the man in the middle, the man in the middle, that he thought he had seen something – not really enough for a referee to sending someone off, but there we are.
Morelos was given his marching orders with Clancy “unsighted” assistant referee David McGeachie with a “limited” view but Collum had already made up his mind – it was rescinded by the appeals panel because whatever the fourth official told the referee was utter nonsense.
Rangers fans were disappointed that Gio wasn’t more visibly annoyed after the game, however, that simply isn’t his manner, as long as the club aren’t taking it lying down – which appears to be the case – then having our manager on the touchline is much more important than him saying something that gets him into trouble – calling out Collum et al isn’t his job, but someone behind the scenes has to do it because, as we saw last season, it can be the difference between winning and losing the league.