Bobby Madden has been accused of not applying the laws of the game during Hibs’ defeat at Ibrox on Sunday.
It seemed to be a fairly routine match to take charge of until Allan McGregor decided to try a Kung Fun attack on Marc McNulty before deciding to feign injury.
Madden red carded the keeper with Young McCrorie taking over in goals for the stoppage time.
Hibs were awarded a corner to test the rookie keeper but had to use a replacement ball after the Union Bears refused to return the ball used to concede the corner.
— Derek Crothers (@deaks1ey) May 7, 2019
As Hibs took the corner the original ball was thrown onto the pitch, colliding with the one in play with Madden deciding to re-start with a drop ball. At this stage he broke the laws of the game.
“At the time, we were desperate to contest the drop ball,” Hibs defender Paul Hanlon told The Sun. “It was inside their penalty box and we didn’t want the ball going all the way back to our keeper.
“So, we wanted to contest it, but the referee said that if Rangers wanted to give us the ball back we weren’t allowed to contest it. I didn’t know that was the rule now, but that seems to be the case.
“We were trying to build momentum and keep the pressure on and that kind of put us a bit on the back foot again.”
This weekend Madden will be in charge of the Hearts v Aberdeen match at Tynecastle.