Former top referee Dermot Gallagher insists Callum McGregor had to be sent off at Ibrox and reckons John Kennedy’s view of his first booking might have clouded his judgement.
Interim Celtic boss slammed rookie ref Nick Walsh for giving McGregor his marching orders, claiming his initial booking for a foul on Ryan Kent was the wrong call.
Gallagher, though, said after watching a TV replay of the incident on Sky Sports News that it was a yellow and when he committed the second foul for a challenge on Glen Kamara that he had to go.
Kennedy said after the game “It wasn’t reckless. There was no malice, no intent in terms of any power behind the tackle.”
But Gallagher said: “John thought the first one was just a foul. Callum went into it and took it with his back foot and I wonder, in fairness to John, if he’d seen it from his vantage point.
“When you see it close up it wasn't the tackle he made, it was the trailing foot and the referee felt that was a yellow card and unfortunately for Callum he made a tackle two minutes later and that was the end of his game.”
Gallagher said the whistler got that spot on and compared it to a similar incident in the English Premier League recently when Craig Dawson took out Joelinton, Allan Saint-Maximin broke and the Magpies scored before Dawson was shown a second yellow.
Gallagher said: “The referee has got to decide if he’s broken up a promising attack and they’ve not only carried on but Rangers have scored a goal.
“He then has to decide if it was a reckless tackle. He said yes and it was a second yellow card so unfortunately for Callum McGregor he had to be sent off.
“It was similar to Newcastle United v West Ham a few weeks ago. Craig Dawson did a similar thing on the halfway line - he went into a tackle, Allan Saint-Maximin got away and they ended up scoring a goal.”
