BARRY Robson today stated that Rangers being awarded an injury- time penalty against Aberdeen following a contentious VAR check did “not look good” and declared that Scottish football is “in trouble”.
Referee Nick Walsh ruled that Stefan Gartenmann had fouled Connor Goldson inside his area in the final minute of regulation time after being urged to watch a replay of the incident on his pitchside monitor by his Clydesdale House colleague Andrew Dallas.
James Tavernier stepped forward and netted the spot kick to ensure the Ibrox club, who had fallen behind early in the first half of the cinch Premiership match when they allowed a Bojan Miovski strike, earned a draw and a point.
However, Robson clearly felt that Rangers centre half Goldson had gone down far too easily and stressed that not all shirt pulls deserved to be punished with a foul.
The former Celtic midfielder argued that the Glasgow club, who are now eight points behind their city rivals in the table with a game in hand, being awarded another late penalty did not reflect well on Scottish football.
“I think there was a lot said at the VAR meeting last week about pulling shirts in boxes,” he said. “I wasn’t at the meeting, I was up here training when they put the meeting down in Glasgow on so it wasn’t great timing.
“But this is what I have heard – the referees all said that not every pull of a shirt inside the penalty box is a penalty.
“Stefan got blocked, I think we can all see that. Obviously, VAR has just not bothered looking at the block, it has just looked at the shirt pull. We are in trouble if this is the way it is going to aren’t we?
“We are in trouble. It just doesn’t look good for me another VAR decision going Rangers’ way in the 90th minute. It doesn’t look good. I don’t know, I am just frustrated.”
Asked if he was surprised that Walsh went over to his monitor, Robson said: “It took him long enough eh? But so many decisions have not gone for us this season. I think we could be sitting in a completely different place to where we are. But do you know what? We keep going, we keep fighting on.”
Robson spoke to Walsh on the pitch following the final whistle. Asked what he had said to the referee, he said: "I just said I hope you got it right, I hope you got it right. I just hope he got it right that’s all.
“Too many decisions have been wrong in Scotland. It was a long time at the monitor as well. Listen, I am not going to get into that. I know you all want me to. What I feel I can’t say. Let’s just talk about how good my team was today.
“I thought we performed really well in the game. I thought in the first-half we pressed so well, we counter-pressed well, we transitioned well. We played with speed and excitement and could have been two up. We looked like a real Aberdeen team.
“It is really hard to play with that speed and tempo for the whole game, especially against a team like Rangers, who are quality. In the second half we knew they would have their periods, we knew that, we understand that.
"We did it well, we flipped the shape a wee bit, we made some good subs. Then we just got his with a sucker punch, once again, at the end.”
