Giovanni van Bronckhorst believes John Lundstram’s red card was “harsh” after Willie Collum sent the midfielder off for a foul on Martin Boyle that proved a huge moment in an incident-packed game as nine-man Rangers spilled two points against Hibs at Easter Road.
Lundstram was given his marching orders with a straight red for a foul on Martin Boyle before substitute Alfredo Morelos followed him for appearing to lash out at Marijan Cabraja. James Tavernier scored the opener late in the first half from a penalty that Hibs boss Lee Johnson reckons should never have been awarded, while the home side had a spot kick appeal turned down.
Boyle levelled early in the second half before Tom Lawrence - a doubt for the Champions League playoff return against PSV Eindhoven after hobbling off - restored Gers lead but Josh Campbell grabbed an injury time equaliser on a dramatic afternoon in Leith. Van Bronckhorst believes Lundstram’s dismissal was unfair but is undecided on the Morelos sending off. He told Sky Sports: “It was a physical game and in the first half I saw some tackles with a lot of passion. The ref decides if it’s a red card or yellow. I think John was harsh to get a red card. It was a foul but he didn’t have any intention to hit him really hard so I was surprised he gave him a red card.
"It's a tackle I have also seen in the first half, maybe even worse tackles, it's a physical game. If the referee wants to have a physical game and set the standards like that, I think you shouldn't be given the red card, because of the type of tackles we had to overcome in the first half. I think it was a bit harsh, he fouled him, but no real intention to hurt him and wasn't even really a tackle with real force. It was just a foul to avoid a transition moment.
“The second half with the physicality they had it’s always going to be fighting duels, especially with long balls. They were physically very strong. I haven’t seen the second red card back. I’ll have to clearly see what happened but after those two decisions we were with nine men so it was very difficult to keep the ball and we were just trying to avoid the goal against us.
“It was a game where a lot of things happened. It was a very physical game. And after the two red cards we were fighting to get the win. It was always going to be difficult but we almost succeeded getting the three points but they fell on the right position and scored the equaliser in injury time.
“It has cost us a lot of energy with nine men to prevent them from scoring and we worked hard to deny them the goal but in the end we just came short.
“VAR will help the ref make the right decisions, especially with the red cards. You can have time to think about it because you can clearly see if it’s a red card or not. Now, once the decision is made you can’t overturn it. I’m very pro-VAR but until it’s here we can’t change it.
Van Bronckhorst appeared to be looking for a red card for Rocky Bushiri for his foul on Antonio Colak which led to the Gers spot kick award, from which Tavernier converted. He said: “I saw the ball went back to the goalie and Antonio went to press him. I haven’t seen it but it looked like he handled him so it's a foul in the penalty box.
“I wasn’t sure about the rules. It’s different when it's a clear scoring goal or not so that’s was the debate with the linesman and fourth official but once they decided it wasn’t a clear opportunity it was a yellow so for me it was over.”
On Lawrence’s headed goal from a brilliant Borna Barisic cross, he said: “It was a good attack, great cross and great goal from Tom but he was caught in a bad tackle and twisted his ankle a little bit so we took him and have to wait and see if he’ll be fit for Wednesday.”
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