Partick Thistle boss Ian McCall has praised Michael Beale and the Rangers backroom team's 'class' after they allowed Scott Tiffoney to score during the Glasgow pair's Scottish Cup clash at Ibrox.
The Scottish Championship outfit commanded a first half lead thanks to Jason Holt's penalty before Antonio Colak struck back shortly after the break. Gers captain James Tavernier had a spot kick saved by Jamie Sneddon then Malik Tillman put the Light Blues in front on 71 minutes in controversial circumstances as he pounced on a Partick drop ball and rounded the Jags goalkeeper. That led to Beale consulting his staff before agreeing to allow the visitors to score from the resulting kick-off, with the Ibrox faithful and Allan McGregor watching on with rage. And it looked like it was going to extra-time until James Sands netted an all-important winner with four minutes remaining.
McCall accepted that his side came up short in the end but credited Rangers handling of the bizarre scenes that led to Tiffoney's equaliser as he praised on-loan star Tillman. He told BBC Sportsound: "The first thing I would say about Malik Tillman is I hope we can keep him in Scotland because I really enjoy watching him play football. He can play alright, he can really play. He's good enough to play, in the old days when I was here with some top players.
"I don't think he knew what he was doing. I think he got mixed up and put it in the net. I thought Mick showed an awful lot of class to do what he did and I think it was the right thing to do. So there's no blame on anybody, not even the ref. I'm not even sure what the rules are, I mean I've been in the game since '81 and I've not seen it before.
"I think it unfolded as it did, they allowed us to score the goal to get us to 2-2 and then it was game on but unfortunately Rangers score from a set play.
"At that point we are hoping for extra-time and give it a real go in extra-time and we feel as well if you can get penalties, obviously you want to win the gam, but if you get to penalties we've got a goalie, fair enough the Rangers goalie isn't bad but we've got a goalie that's capable of saving penalties as he's done quite a lot. So ultimately an awful lot of pride. The players showed the really really care for the club and they care for the jersey, and the supporter showed that. So it was a great day for us with the caveat, we got beat and we're not in the last eight."
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