Former Rangers striker Stephen Thompson has claimed that manager Graeme Murty threw Andy Halliday under the bus when he substituted him in the first-half against Celtic.
Halliday, 26, was selected as part of a midfield three alongside Greg Docherty and Graham Dorrans on Sunday, but was hauled off for Josh Windass after just 41 minutes with the Gers already two down as they went on to lose 4-0.
Former Gers front man Thompson has now slammed Murty for his decision to not wait until half-time to bring Halliday off, claiming he threw the midfielder under the bus and made him a scapegoat.
Speaking to the Scottish Sun, he said: “I’ve got sympathy for Andy Halliday. I thought he was thrown under the bus a wee bit. You know, you’re chucked into this game of enormous magnitude having not really been playing on a weekly basis so he’s not at his fittest.
“He’s thrown into that midfield. A midfield that was completely disorientated because Graeme Murty had tried to guess what Celtic were going to do. They were all confused. Nobody knew what their roles were because Celtic didn’t play the shape that they had worked on all week.
“But, here’s the point. There’s four minutes until half time. Why take a player off in the 41st minute? What can you gain in four minutes there? Wait until half time, take him off and save all the emotions and embarrassment. It was an error starting him in the first place and the second error is just wait until half time.”
Goals from Tom Rogic and Callum McGregor had set Celtic on their way before Halliday’s substitution, before a Ross McCrorie red cards early in the second half saw Moussa Dembele score from the spot with Olivier Ntcham rounding off the rout with another penalty.
OPINION
You can see why Thompson sees the situation that way, and matters were made worse after the substitution when Halliday got into an altercation with a supporter. However, others would applaud Murty for taking the initiative and making the change as early as possible, with the game already looking beyond Rangers. While it turned out Windass did little for the rest of the match after being brought on, many managers would have been complacent with the change. Anyhow, it looks like time is up for Murty at Rangers, with Sunday’s defeat far too embarrassing and damaging for him to recover.