Rangers boss stunned by red-card referee

Rangers boss Walter Smith lashed out at controversial referee Stuart Dougal after his side were reduced to 10 men in the 2-1 win over Aberdeen.

Rangers returned to the top of the Scottish Premier League ahead of Celtic’s game against Hibernian on Sunday when an own goal from Ricky Foster and a Kenny Miller header put the Gers in the driving seat before a late goal from substitute Michael Paton set up a nervous finish.

Celtic will go top on goal difference if they win at Easter Road with just a final game against Hearts at Parkhead to go, while Rangers face a difficult away trip to Tannadice against Dundee United.

But one player who will miss that vital clash as Rangers bid to stop Celtic claiming their fourth championship in a row is Madjid Bougherra.

The defender was given his marching orders shortly before half-time by Dougal, who was already at the centre of a storm following Tuesday’s Celtic and Dundee United game when he missed a high challenge from Australian Scott McDonald on Lee Wilkie.

Dougal flashed the red card after assistant referee Graham Chambers adjudged the Algerian had deliberately kicked Dons keeper Jamie Langfield in the head after he slid in with his studs chasing a ball in the box.

But Smith was incensed with the decision and doesn’t know if he will be able to appeal it to allow Bougherra to play in next week’s title showdown.

“It was an incredible ordering off. The linesman has stated to me that the player deliberately kicked the goalkeeper on the head, which I found absolutely incredibly when I saw it on TV,” Smith said.

“For him to make that kind of assumption was incredible. We’ve lost a player for the majority of the game for a circumstance which obviously wasn’t the case.

“To be honest I don’t know if we can appeal it. There was talk that there was going to be a review panel. I don’t know whether that is the same panel which looks at ordering offs but according to the lads it doesn’t sit till next season which is obviously not much good to anybody.”

It was the second controversial moment of the game after Dons defender Charlie Mulgrew saw red for a clash with Kyle Lafferty.

The former Celtic player reacted angrily to a foul by the Northern Ireland international on the touchline and leaned in with his head, but didn’t appear to make contact with the winger.

Smith said he would be talking to Lafferty about the part he played in the incident.

“I was disappointed with my own player’s reaction to the first ordering off. I didn’t think there was any great contact made there at all,” Smith stated.

“Obviously we will have to have words with Kyle.”

Despite all the controversy surrounding the match, Smith was pleased to pick up the win which means Rangers are still in with a chance to win their first league title in four years.

“It was all about winning the match. I said before the game everyone always considers that if you go into a game you’ve got to get a number of goals but it’s not like that,” Smith said.

“You’ve got to win the game and even late on we had a couple of really good opportunities where we could have added to the score-line and didn’t so.

“We are disappointed we didn’t add to the couple of goals we scored but the most important thing was that we won the game.”