Ally McCoist has shared his thoughts on the Scottish League Cup final VAR fallout that's raged on since Sunday – admitting a "howler" was made while calling for Rangers not to question the integrity of officials.
In doing so, the club legend took aim at Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson while recalling the perceived "paranoia" of the Parkhead side's support during his playing days in the 1990s.
Speaking to the Daily Record, McCoist said: “Rangers can’t do anything else. They have to accept it. You have to make your feelings known, which they are well within their rights to do, but they can’t do any more. Officials get punished and miss a game and the SFA have acknowledged the error.
“But Rangers shouldn’t even go down the road of questioning the integrity of officials. If we do that then the game is gone. Michael Nicholson last year went on about VAR and all that sort of stuff. It’s a dangerous game when you go down that road and question the integrity of officials.
“We used to accuse Celtic of paranoia when they wrote and complained to the SFA over the years. Michael Nicholson made that quip and was probably trying to get a clap from the audience but you can’t be saying that.
"There was a time back in the day when Celtic were accused of paranoia and there will be a train of thought that some refereeing decisions are going against Rangers and for Celtic because of that. But that’s not the case."
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McCoist continued, underscoring the fact he believes Sunday's error – which the SFA's head of refereeing Willie Collum has since addressed – was a mistake made without bias.
He added: “Referees and officials will make honest mistakes. It was a howler on Sunday but we need to move on.
"I genuinely believe the officials are doing their best. I think the standard is bang average at best but there’s no way we can start picking and choosing officials. It’s not on. You can have a moan because they got it wrong, 100 percent, and they have been stood down for the weekend.
"Rangers fans, correctly by the way, feel aggrieved because that’s not the only decision. You go back to Kemar Roofe’s goal at Ibrox, Morelos goal at Celtic Park and all that stuff. These are decisions that just go against you. They are wrong decisions but you have to take them on the chin."
