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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Livingston vs Rangers incidents reviewed by Sky Sports expert

Ross McCausland's fall inside the Livingston box which resulted in a Rangers penalty has been branded a 'terrible dive' by a former Premier League player.

The 20-year-old started his first league match for the Ibrox club yesterday as Philippe Clement showed faith in youth at the Tony Macaroni Arena in what ended a comfortable 2-0 win for his side.

The young winger was bright and didn't look out of place at Premiership level.

With the scoreline 0-0 during the first half, the attacker was played in towards the byline inside Livi's box. Shamal George came rushing out and McCausland went to ground. 

Referee Steven McLean immediately pointed to the spot, however, TV replays showed that McCausland did go down easily and there appeared to be no contact from George. 

VAR checked the incident by did not overturn the onfield official's decision. James Tavernier missed the target from the resultant spot kick, though.

Reviewing the situation on Ref Watch, Sky Sports expert Dermot Gallagher was unsure why the video assistants didn't inform McLean to change his original call.

He said: "Not a foul. Looks a foul there but when you see it here, not a foul. This is a view that the referee hasn't gone but there - not a foul. Buckles his own legs."

Sue Smith said: "No, it's not a foul. He's going down before contact isn't he?"

And ex-Leeds and Manchester City player Danny Mills added: "If there is any contact. Terrible dive."

Gers had two goals disallowed and former Premier League referee Gallagher said both were the right call.

On the first, Connor Goldson's tap-in that was ruled out after Cyriel Dessers was adjudged to have interfered with play while in an offside position, he said: "Well this is similar to the Harry Maguire one last week at Fulham. 

"He's in an offside position and clearly there he goes for the ball, so he impacts on the keeper and it's disallowed."

And on McCausland's own impressive striker, which was chopped off after Abdallah Sima was pulled up for pushing of Cristian Montano, Gallagher added: "Sima pushes him, the first defender, on the six-yard line. Referee spots that, disallowed."

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