Michael Dawson fumed at footage of the decision to award Rangers a penalty late in the defeat at Ross County, branding it “so harsh”.

The former Tottenham defender reacted with disgust live on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (20 April) to a clip of Brandon Khela being struck on the hand late in the 3-2 Gers defeat last weekend (14 April), disputing referee Matthew MacDermid’s decision to award a spot kick after a VAR review.

Ex-Premier League official Mike Dean accepted the call was expected because the defender’s hand was high and Scottish football has routinely judged such incidents that way this season, but Dawson wasn’t moved and branded officials north of the border “consistently wrong”.

Dean said (1.29pm): “He’s unlucky, it’s been flicked on just in front of him, but his arm is just so high and it’s always going to be a penalty kick in my opinion so the correct call.”

“So harsh. So harsh,” Dawson cut in.

“Well what I would say to you,” Dean continued, “in Scotland they’ve been consistent with that kind of decision all season so it wasn’t surprising.”

“Consistently wrong looking at that,” scoffed Dawson. “Honestly, I look at that, I don’t know what the defender can do. His arm’s not up there in an unnatural position, he’s just took off with it a little bit away from his body. I though it was very, very harsh.”

There are enough pundits in Scotland who are regularly raging at this sort of handball call, and to some extent it is easy to see why, although sometimes there is an tendency to simply complain about any VAR intervention.

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