Stephen Glass baffled by penalty decision in Aberdeen’s draw with Rangers

Posted Wednesday, January 19, 2022 by PA

Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass was baffled as to why his side were not awarded a penalty seconds before Rangers scored in an eventful 1-1 draw at Pittodrie.

Goalkeeper Allan McGregor caught Ryan Hedges after the Dons forward got to a long ball first, but referee Kevin Clancy waved play on and Rangers went straight up the park to score through Ianis Hagi in the 20th minute.

The Dons eventually got a spot-kick through a clear handball from Alfredo Morelos and Lewis Ferguson levelled in the 73rd minute but they could not find a winner after Ryan Kent’s red card.

On the first-half incident, Glass told Sky Sports: “It’s a penalty kick. I think anybody with a pair of eyes can see it’s a penalty kick.

“It might be difficult for the ref with the distance he’s from but I don’t know how the linesman doesn’t see it.

“But you can’t complain about it or you end up in the stand.”

When quizzed again about the call, Glass told a media conference later: “I don’t even look for one any more. The linesman said there wasn’t enough contact for a penalty and the referee said there was no contact. But I won’t waste my time asking for explanations.”

Glass was disappointed his side did not show better discipline after the penalty rejection.

“That’s probably the one part of the game we switched off for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and we got punished by a right good team,” he said.

“That’s the one thing we can question the players on but everything else was fantastic – their effort, their quality, their energy. I am disappointed for them that they don’t get what they really deserve.

“I feel like we should have got three (points). You go a goal behind against the reigning champions, it’s always a good point, but we are frustrated we didn’t get three.”

Rangers dropped cinch Premiership points for the first time under Giovanni Van Bronckhorst but the Dutchman was satisfied after they went four clear of Celtic.

“In the end, especially with 10 men, we were happy with 1-1 because a point is a point,” he told Sky Sports.

“Sometimes you have games like this. It’s not like every place we go, we dominate and create chances.

“We knew it was going to be hard here. Of course we wanted to be better, especially on the ball, but we weren’t so we go back to Glasgow with a point.”

Kent appeared harshly treated when he was booked for a challenge on Scott Brown shortly after receiving a yellow card following a clash with Jonny Hayes.

Van Bronckhorst said: “It’s a physical game with a lot of tackles, a lot of duels, so you know there’s going to be yellow cards on both sides.

“He just got booked a little bit before so every time you make a foul you know the fans are going to scream. It’s normal in a place like this.

“But with 10 men I think we did well and worked hard for the point.”