Referee missed incident which should have seen £2m Rangers man sent off vs Celtic – Our View

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Rangers recorded an emphatic 3-0 win over Celtic earlier on Saturday, although Todd Cantwell arguably should have been sent off.

The £2m man opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a powerful strike which went through Joe Hart’s legs.

However – in a moment which was clearly missed by Steven McLean – Todd Cantwell should have been yellow carded, and then eventually dismissed later in the game as Rangers triumphed over Celtic.

What’s the story?

Well, the Englishman jumped into the crowd after his goal, which is technically a bookable offence by the laws of the game.

While that in itself is not worthy of a red, Cantwell then went on to commit five fouls throughout the game, the most of any player on the pitch by some distance, so it is hard to believe he wasn’t cautioned for those challenges.

Nicolas Raskin’s tally of three fouls was the next highest as WhoScored shows.

Therefore, Cantwell was very lucky to not be given a red card by McLean before Michael Beale eventually decided to substitute him in the 88th minute.

Of course, the Rangers No.13 didn’t exactly leap into the supporters at Ibrox, but even jumping the advertising hoardings and going in for a hug with fans is a yellow card, even if it is a bit of a rubbish rule which discourages engagement between players and the fanbase.

Celtic given wake up call against Rangers

It will be interesting to see if Celtic’s 3-0 defeat at Ibrox today changes Ange Postecoglou’s plans for the summer, as John Hughes alluded to on BBC Sportsound.

During the game, the old Hibernian boss said: “Ange will be asking questions of himself. This might make Celtic question – ‘are we still a little short?’ That’s what a loss like this does to you.

“But sometimes defeat can be a good thing. It can make you look in the mirror and think ‘are we as good as we think we are?’ Still, it’s hard to take at the time.”

Regardless of what Celtic do this summer, Rangers still have a lot of recruitment to do if they are to close the gap on their bitter rivals, after missing out on another Scottish Premiership title this season.