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Rangers: Alfredo Morelos ‘extremely lucky’ to avoid red card against Hibs, claims Mark Halsey

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Image for Rangers: Alfredo Morelos ‘extremely lucky’ to avoid red card against Hibs, claims Mark Halsey

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey believes Alfredo Morelos was lucky to avoid a red card in their game against Hibernian last night.

During the first-half, Morelos was involved in an incident where he appeared to stamp on Hibs man Ryan Porteous following a quick tussle, and whilst the referee blew for the initial foul, he didn’t give anything for the stamp, with his view possibly blocked by the rest of the defender during the affair.

The incident became more controversial later in the game when the Colombian would go on to score the winning goal when he shouldn’t really have been on the pitch. Speaking exclusively to This Is Futbol, Halsey says that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was some retrospective action coming Morelos’ way.

He said: “I think Morelos can count himself extremely lucky that he wasn’t dismissed from the field of play for violent conduct. Now, whether the SFA look at that and take retrospective action – I mean, I would imagine they would if the referee’s not seen that.

“So it’d be interesting to see what comes of that situation. But I really do feel Morelos was very, very lucky. He didn’t cost Rangers in this game, but obviously, they really want him playing, not sat on the bench and I think they could be losing him for a few games if the SFA take retrospective action, which I would think they would and they should on those situations.”

Should Alfredo Morelos have been sent off?

No, it was a yellow

No, it was a yellow

Yes, he should have been

Yes, he should have been

Halsey is right to give a warning about retrospective action, and Rangers can consider themselves lucky that there isn’t any VAR in Scottish Football to deal with the incident straight away, otherwise you could be almost certain that Morelos would have been given his marching orders.

Morelos is certainly a player that has a track record when it comes to discipline problems, and you wonder if perhaps that’s something that will be brought up in an incident like this and if they’ll take a sterner approach for someone who clearly hasn’t learned his lesson from his past indiscretions.

And whilst his potential absence might not make a big difference given their gap at the top of the table, you get the sense it is only a matter of a time before it does.

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Freelance sports journalist & broadcaster.