Michael Stewart believes Steven Gerrard was wrong to throw referee John Beaton under the bus in the wake of controversy surrounding Alfredo Morelos' overturned yellow card for simulation in midweek win over Livingston.
The Rangers forward has had his caution after tumbling in the box under the attention of Lions' stopper Max Stryjek nullified by the SFA disciplinary panel, but the Ibrox boss will serve a one-match suspension for angrily stomping on to the pitch to confront the official.
Gerrard accepted a ban after being sent off at half-time during the game, in which Morelos scored the winner with three minutes remaining to edge Rangers closer to the Scottish Premiership title.
However, the Gers boss doubled down on his criticism of Beaton in a statement released on Friday evening, blasting the official for failing to apologise for his error after claiming he had said sorry for his x-rated outburst.
It left Stewart bemused, with the former Hearts and Hibs midfielder feeling Gerrard could have "held back" on going after the referee during the game.
He told BBC Sportsound: "I honestly do not think that is a situation where you can castigate the officials.
"When you watch it from a couple of angles it genuinely looks like like a dive, but there are mitigating circumstances when you see the low, behind angle you see Morelos' ankle was caught by Stryjek.
"I can totally understand why Steven Gerrard was annoyed about it - it's not long before half-time, it's a big incident and his player's been yellow carded when he shouldn't.
If there's a really bad decision made by the officials. I'm not going to say it's justified to go after refs in that fashion but I can understand being critical.
"In this instance I just don't see it being one of those that's so blatantly bad.
"To be fair to Steven Gerrard, after the game he did say he was a bit emotional.
"I just felt he could've held back a bit. The half-time incident wasn't great.
"Rangers are in such a strong position, I don't understand this one as well. OK, they're very close to wrapping up the title but they've got some much leeway. It's not as if it was two minutes from the end of the game.
"They've been so much better than everybody there's not that pressure of 'if we drop points here we're in big trouble'."
