I suppose that’s one was of describing some of the treatment dished out to Rangers players on Tuesday!
Livingston Reactions – Click Here.
Which was how Mark Warburton, when talking to rangers.co.uk, referred to the some of the ‘challenges’ made by the Livingston players in the Rangers win over the Petrofac Training Cup holders to move the Gers into the Semi Finals.
Rangers boss Warburton was happy to see off Livingston but wasn’t so happy with some of the ‘tackles’ made on his players, in particular Spurs loanee Nathan Oduwa.
‘Firstly we were pleased to get the result and get in a semi-final.
‘I am pleased that the players maintained patience and tried to do the right thing but there is a huge sense of frustration at some things; the tempo of the play and I thought some of the challenges were inappropriate.’
He also questioned exactly why some yellow cards were shown to the likes of Martyn Waghorn and Nicky Clark? These bookings could prove costly later on, meaning players potentially miss out on a place in the final due to suspension?
Warburton added there’s no point ‘shouting and screaming’ as all that’ll lead to bookings and sending offs so better ways to ‘improve communication’ with the officials is what he’s looking for.
‘Look at tonight, we didn’t have Dean Shiels available because he had two yellow cards and it’s a competition rule, and I understand that. But they have to justify the yellow cards – why was Martyn Waghorn booked? Why was Nicky Clark? I don’t know.
‘But we also have to improve communication with the officials and it’s not about shouting and screaming from the side lines, it has to be better and we have to be better at that as well.’
As said already one that came in for particular ‘treatment’ was Spurs loanee Oduwa. Taken out within minutes of the game getting underway the skilful, some would call his ability ‘excessive showboating’ at times, winger eventually went off at half time.
Oduwa could now miss the Championship meeting with St Mirren at the weekend.
The Gers boss went on to add that he was disappointment at the treatment dished out to him as this robs the paying punters of ‘entertainment’ with the ability he has always likely to bring this in bucket loads.
‘It’s about an entertainment industry and fans want to come and see players like Nathan Oduwa; they work hard and pay their money and you should enjoy coming to watch these players.
‘It is frustrating evening – there were some poor challenges tonight and Nathan came off at half-time because of one of those.
‘We will assess him in the morning, it was nothing too serious but it was a bad challenge that injured him – the first one was 30 seconds into the game and four or five swiftly followed.’
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