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I don't get this attitude. Why should Rangers have to win every game by 2 or 3 goals so that biased refereeing decisions don't cost us? It's unrealistic to expect that, particularly against teams that play 10 man defences, plus it allows the refs to get off the hook. We did enough to get the 3 points and we would have had them if it wasn't for the ref.

I reckon someone from Hibs chinned Collum at half time for giving our penalty and not giving them one for the pull on Rocky and he has went out to even it up.

both Hibs players milked the situations and surrounded the ref on both occasions whereas Lundstram in the first half got up straight away with none of our players asking a question of Collum.

Never seen any of their match yesterday but the stats read as follows; Fouls 11 v 12 Bookings 0 v 7 Reds for second bookings 0 v 2 So almost all of Hearts fouls were deemed bookable yet none of the tims were.

Over the years I've become convinced that Collum, Clancy and some others are essentially cheating. Not just incompetent but cheating. What does that mean, cheating? Does it mean a premeditated intention to take decisions, deliberately and knowingly, with an objective of disadvantaging Rangers? Or is it an internal dislike of Rangers that subliminally influences their decision making. For instance, causing them to produce a red card when a more neutral stance would call for a yellow? In my book, cheating is whatever causes unfair decisions that, over a period, consistently disadvantage one club, whether deliberately or because of altered judgement. You might say that supporters suffer the same bias in their interpretation of referees, especially those who gain a certain negative reputation. The difference of course is that supporters don't have an official obligation to be impartial and to apply the rules consistently and fairly. Referees do and some of them are cheats.

I'm far from convinced the bias is all unconscious but if the refereeing authorities aren't proactively addressing the risk of subliminal bias then that is effectively cheating too. The bias is too consistent in terms of direction and magnitude for it to be anything other than cheating. We do ourselves no favours by clinging to the fantasy that this is all just unfortunate incompetence. It might be easier than facing the hard reality of refereeing in Scotland but it just perpetuates the situation. Everything is rotten in Scotland these days and football is far too immersed in our tribalism for it not to be as bad as it gets.

Some discussion on sky.

Lundstram's red will surely be rescinded. I wouldn't bother appealing Morelos' red - it was maybe a wee bit soft but you can argue that either way.

He should have said we were cheated out of points. It really doesn't matter if that was incompetence or a bribe that caused it. It was cheating us out of points.

I don't understand the debate about this. A cynical 'take one for the team' tackle is a yellow card. If it's violent conduct, endangering an opponent or you're the last man, it becomes a red. Collum wrongly issued a red card to Lundstram because it was just a cynical foul. There isn't really a debate to be had. It was a mistake by Collum.

While cards are interesting, more interesting is the amount of goals the Yahoos score through/after dubious decisions, or, indeed, free-kicks and penalties denied to the opposition, even the most glaring ones. Methinks last season alone, they got away with almost 10 decisions that went their way before they got their act together, with clear penalties denied to the opposition or goals where scored by the Yahoos from offside positions. While you would not go as far as denying that we managed to throw away our lead over the course of a 3 or 4 week spell, they could easily have stood with 10 to 15 points less too.

The way I see things our players are TRAINED to respect the referee and other clubs use the continental approach.

Correct. I'd put money on someone, from somewhere (even from within Easter Road!!), chugging Collum's chain.

Simply: the fhilth and acolytes are not to be trusted.

Our players never do. They are so passive.

Immediate appeal for the Lundstram red. And we're still to decide on whether to appeal Alfredo's.

It's not really an either/or thing, there were three main contributory factors for the dropped points: our poor performance, Collum sending Lundstram off and Morelos being a daftie.

Therefore it was Collums fault for reducing us to 9, no?

Not simply and solely because of preventing bad decisions costing us. Given financial disparities, we should be comfortably winning against provincial Scottish sides, period. We seem to have went head long into Victimhood after Saturday, when our main problems are very much in house. Collum made ONE glaring mistake (Lundstram red card) I think we could have went on and won with 10, but we'll never know. When it went to 9, we were holed beneath the water line and it WASN'T Collum's fault.

Agreed. Refs know that they will be publicly hounded if they give a decision, even a correct one, against Celtic, and that affects their decisions, whereas they know they'll be given a free ride by us. Gio/the club could be clever about it and put pressure on without incurring the wrath of the authorities.

I guess that could happen in a one off game. But there's years of stats with similar outcomes.

Sands by a fair distance. Lad seems to be growing into the role and with almost every other centre half finding themselves injured, we're going to need him and King over the coming weeks.

This is it. No ones saying every refereeing decision is biased. But there is a clear trend of decisions cropping up which then cost us points. Who knows, by the end of the season this could be the only contentious game and we lose the league by 2 points. On top of that celtics fouls/cards stats have been slanted for years. I actually think it was considerably worse in Gerrards first couple of years.

was the same all of last year. Our stopping 10 has stepped up everyone's efforts.

After the World Cup, I believe.

@Uilleam, I have read this fouls/cards ratio for Paedo FC is constantly of a similar nature and has been for the last few seasons. Perhaps their fouls are softer? It's hard to ignore something so consistent.

To be fair to Matondo, he's pretty much where we would expect him to be this early in his Rangers career, which is nowhere near the hype flying around him. He might well become a valued player but so far he isn't even close.

Anyone who thinks the likes of Kevin Clancy, Willie Callum, Frank Conner, Alan Mulvaney, Don Robertson will change their mind after the usual mind blowing decisions because VAR is available is a much better man than me.

I posted this in the PL thread, but it might be appropriate here: Trippier was just sent off for Newcastle for a tackle similar to Lundstram's yesterday - perhaps even more dangerous. VAR has reviewed it and it's been overturned. It's a tactical foul. Yellow is fair. There was another, similar challenge earlier in the game which was also a yellow.

I think Collum does his inept best without too much obvious bias. When he sees what he thinks is a red card incident, instead of reaching for the ticket, he needs to walk over to the scene of the crime, thinking as he goes and make the decision on arrival. A few seconds of contemplation always beats impetuousity.

Collum has a particular style but it isn't exclusive to any particular team.

Hate to say it but the football were serving up is just dull and dreich changes are required across the card .

If Collum saw the Colak incident clearly, then he had to award a penalty, for such it was. (The boiled egg analogy refers.) If Collum saw the Tavenier incident clearly, then he had a decision to make: was it jostling in the box, six of one half a dozen of the other, or was it a clear foul by our skipper? Referees often take the former view, as it is often not obvious who is the guilty party. If every instance of jockeying for position at free kicks or corners, was penalised, we would be watching a lot a dead balls being struck. Apart from that, the decision to caution Doyle-Hayes and red card Lundstram for tackles which were as near to identical as you will ever get on a football pitch was extraordinary by anyone's standards. In fact, the foul by the Hibs' man, on Lundstram, was in a position much further up the park than that committed by JL, so arguably was a worse infraction. And Hibs first was offside, both players being in advance of the defence. Marginal, but if you watch VAR in action, the proverbial fag paper comes into play, as it did last night, denying Jesus of the Arsenal (!!) a goal. In both orderings off, the red cards were out in a trice. Willie the Collum could outdraw Billy the Kid, imho. I am convinced that JL was dismissed to 'even things up', following the 'soft' penalty, and some noise at HT within the tunnel/dressing room areas. With Morelos, it looked personal. I suspect that Collum has been taken to task by some one or other(s), for perceived leniency towards the Colombian, in the past, and he grasped even yesterday's fairly flimsy opportunity to square the record.

A big problem is we're set up to defend but our defending isn't very good.

Collum is a very inconsistent referee who likes to make big decisions in games, too many of which he gets wrong Our own issue at the moment (other than the CLQ) is whether Morelos and Kent will sign contract extensions offered. If not they should be sold immediately to allow the manager to bring in replacements before the end of the transfer window

To expand on problems. - Lack of intensity - Lack of physicality - Lack of chance creation - Lack of imagination - Lack of penetration - Lack of defensive coordination

He gave us the benefit of the doubt on penalty decisions at both ends in the first half. Strange that, if he has it in for us. Naw, Collum is a particular type of ref, but he isn't a cheat. Our problems lie closer to home and domestically, I can see something similar to last season, only worse.

I couldn't watch this yesterday but I've just sat through it. The standard complaints apply up until 65 minutes. The team lacks an edge in attack and the refusal to shoot in great positions will continue to cost us. Despite that I thought we would still have enough to win. Collum was a disgrace. Lundstram should never have been sent off. As highlighted above there was a near identical (actually worse) foul by a Hibernian player in the first half. That one was punished by a yellow card. I think that the yellow card was consistent with just about every single similar incident that I have ever witnessed. So why did Willie Collum treat this particular one differently? We will never know. The management clearly understand that they are not in a position to change anything about the refereeing. The team needs to believe that it is up against the opposition and 4 hostile officials every week. It's not enough to win by a goal or two. The team has to put it out of sight so that no refereeing mistake can ever cost us the points.

Morelos peaked at Ibrox after coming back from an international break in January this year...for about a month before he had to start playing through an injury. He was playing with a level of touch that was real class and a maturity/responsibility. He looked like the player we all hoped he'd develop into. Had he continued in that vein, I think we win the Europa League. It would have been a fitting way for him to go all the way in a competition he has done so well in for several years. The injury was one of those unfortunate things that football can throw in your face. Now, he seems to have forgotten about the maturity/responsibility and has reset back to the beginning.