Rangers defender Connor Goldson isn’t happy with Scottish refereeing

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The Ibrox defender has noticed a problem playing for Rangers since joining in 2018.

Rangers defender Connor Goldson thinks Scottish referees need to do more to protect players from injury, speaking to The Herald this week.

The Ibrox man was on the receiving end of some rough challenges from Hearts during Sunday’s Scottish League Cup semi-final.

One notable incident occurred in the first half when Steven MacLean was handed a yellow card for an elbow on Goldson, with the player later escaping a second booking for a challenge on Allan McGregor.

Substituted off shortly after, it was clear Austin MacPhee felt his player was running close to receiving a red card.

Goldson has now hit out at the lack of action Scottish referees are taking for challenges he feels cross the line.

As quoted by The Herald, he said: “Scottish football in general is quite physical and it takes the foreign boys a little bit of time to adjust to it but the referees have to try and make sure people aren’t getting hurt.

“For Scottish football to improve the referees have to take action against the ridiculous challenges.

“It’s fine being physical – we’re all physical players and physical teams – but they can’t get away with yellow cards for elbows and nasty tackles where they want to leave a mark just to show they’re the ones who are being aggressive and they’re up for it.”

Does Goldson have a point?

Clearly the Rangers man is not happy with what he perceives as unsafe officiating.

It’s well known that Scottish football is a rougher, more physical league than many around Europe. There is a point to be made that Scottish FA officials could be better off showing cards a bit earlier than they do.

A player committing five or six fouls before the referee even considers a card is not an uncommon occurrence, which is a point Goldson later made to reporters too.

Opposition teams to Rangers might argue that they have no right to be protected just because they have more flair players. The argument that players are getting needlessly hurt is perhaps a bit overboard too.

However, it’s true that spectating Scottish football might be more entertaining if matches were allowed to flow more and referees took action to cut out niggly fouls. Refereeing in Scotland is well overdue a review.