Michael Stewart has fended off suggestions that a handball should have been given against Connor Goldson in Rangers' 2-0 success at Dundee United.
Goals in the second half from Fashion Sakala and Malik Tillman sealed a comfortable win for Michael Beale's men that means Celtic's lead at the top of the Premiership is back at nine points. Goldson was the centre of controversy earlier this week with a ball striking his arm going unpunished in the 2-2 derby draw with the champions, and again he was in the thick of it at Tannadice.
A cross into the Rangers box struck his arm but the Sportscene panel don't think there's anything he could have done as referee Steven MacLean and VAR said no penalty. Stewart has looked to tennis for his reasons when forming his strong opinion. He explained: "It's not a penalty kick. We have got to the stage where I think we are looking to punish players for doing nothing wrong.
"Look at the amount of bodies that are in front of Connor Goldson. He has got no way of knowing that ball is going to be coming anywhere near him.
"His arm is in a completely normal position for when he's defending. If you give a penalty kick for that, I think it is incredibly harsh.
"He's got a millisecond to react if you are saying he needs to get his arm out the way. Now, in tennis, when they serve, it goes so fast and your eye can not track the ball as your eye is predicting where it's going to go.
"You have a ball that's probably a couple of feet when it goes past a player, so there's no way Goldson can react to get his arm out the way. It's an impossibility."
Fellow pundit Cammy Bell agreed with Stewart's assessment. He reckons it wasn't a situation that Goldson could escape.
He explained: "It looks like Goldson is trying to hold off the Dundee United player and it does hit his arm. You can see that clearly.
"But I don't think there's any motion in his arm. There's so many bodies there to see it so I think it would be really harsh if that was to be a penalty kick."
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