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

Michael Beale rues Rangers' errors as VAR calls come under fire

Michael Beale was left to rue a couple of massive errors from his Rangers team as they walked away from Celtic Park empty-handed this afternoon.

A James Tavernier double was not enough for the Light Blues to claim at least a point in Glasgow's east end.

Kyogo also scored a brace, with Jota rounding off the scoring to claim a 3-2 victory for the Hoops.

VAR came under intense scrutiny though, after Kevin Clancy's decision to award a foul against Morelos when he thought he'd opened the scoring midway through the first half. 

The Colombian was penalised for a foul on Alistair Johnston as he poked the ball home from close range after a Gers corner in the first half.

And Beale was left particularly bemused by Nick Walsh's call as VAR to back up the referee's decision after checking the incident. 

He told Sky Sports: "We're really disappointed because we definitely deserved something from the game. We were good in the game and at the start of the second half the chances were with us. 

"We've made two big errors and found ourselves behind out of nowhere really. 

"We came back into the game well and we were pushing right until the end. 

"There were one or two decisions that went against us as well, so I'm a bit disappointed with that. 

"Certainly in terms of the goal Alfredo scores in the first half, their boy is not trying to play the ball. If you look at Alfredo's shirt, it's twisted around the back to his left shoulder so that would prove that both were at it. One was trying to play the ball, one was trying to stop the other guy from playing it. I don't know how they came to that. 

"I'll have to look at it a bit closer but after Ben's mistake, it looks like the ball hits the boy's arm. It might be outside his body but it hits his arm. 

"They're rough decisions for us today. The mistakes were costly but I thought we played well in parts of today's game.

"It does add to the frustrations that they've been checked by VAR. But I don't want to go for it. The guys have seen it and they've deemed it. 

"I'm just disappointed. I'm not a manager that's gone for VAR at any moment this season, but with those two decisions I think they've got them wrong."

Ultimately though, it was two major errors by Ben Davies and John Souttar which cost the Ibrox club. 

They'd come out of the traps flying after the break, with Alfredo Morelos managing two efforts on goal moments after the re-start. 

But it was the Hoops who made their Glasgow counterparts pay the price after some comical defending.

Beale added: "The 15 minutes after half time we had a big chance from Alfredo, their keeper made a big save. The header then gets blocked by Ryan Jack on the line. 

"You could feel it in the stadium that we were playing well. We were in the ascendancy in the game. The mistakes were costly, I think that's clear for anyone that saw it. 

"We responded quite well actually by scoring another goal. Congratulations to James Tavernier on his 100 goals. Two excellent goals today from him. 

"I thought we deserved a draw from the game. We didn't deserve to lose. It was a good performance from our boys today.

"We'll have to keep going again. When we came in we knew were so many points behind. Since I came into the job it's the first defeat in the league and we performed well. 

"If we cut out the mistakes I think we're a very good football team. I think we showed that today and the improvements that we're making. We do need to make a jump further, which we will do. 

"We'll certainly add to the team in the summer, but between now and then we have seven league games to go and a semi-final. If we play how we played today and eradicate the mistakes it'll be a very interesting game. That's what we have to focus on now."

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