DAVID Martindale last night argued that Livingston would have recorded their first victory over Rangers at Ibrox if they had kept 11 men on the park – but confessed that substitute Morgan Boyes deserved to be red carded.
The Almondvale club took the lead through Joel Nouble in the fourth minute and prevented their hosts from scoring until injury-time when John Lundstram volleyed a Ryan Kent cross past Shamal George.
But the visitors had been reduced to 10 men in the second-half following a VAR check – referee David Munro ordered off Boyes after watching a replay of his challenge on Alfredo Morelos on a pitchside monitor.
“The game went how I envisaged it to go,” said Martindale. “We knew the areas of the park where we would give Rangers possession. Up until the sending-off, I think we were in control.
“It may not have looked like that because we gave up possession. But we knew we could deal with cross balls from wide areas. We stopped them. We limited them to very little. We knew would probably get very few opportunities ourselves and we would have to take them. We did that very early on.
“Bar probably the strike from Lundstram and a save from our keeper, I don’t think we had a lot to worry about. With 11 men, I genuinely think we would have picked up three points.”
Asked about the Boyes ordering off, he said: “It’s a red card all day. I thought that at the time. I thought we’d been very lucky and had got away with one. At the time I thought it could be a red card and as soon as he went to the monitor, I knew he was coming off.
“I don’t think there was any malice in the tackle. Coming into a high intensity game, it’s very hard to pick up the pace there and then. It’s probably one he shouldn’t be going into challenge for. He’s a wee bit late. I’ve no complaints with the red card.”
