Jim Goodwin has tackled one of the great taboos of Scottish football- the failure of Scottish referees to award a penalty against the club from Ibrox.
While Celtic, Hibs and Aberdeen have all had five penalties awarded against them, in 20 SPFL matches this season the Ibrox side have yet to conceded a single penalty.
At the weekend Hibs boss Jack Ross was unhappy that Hibs weren’t awarded a penalty, in two incidents Willie Collum chose not to point to the penalty spot.
Rookie ref David Dickinson awarded St Mirren a penalty in their recent Betfred Cup success but the experienced Alan Muir will be in charge of tomorrow’s SPFL rematch.
Previewing tomorrow’s match in a report carried by the Press Association and published by Four Four Two, Goodwin said:
You need the referees to get the big decisions right on the day and be brave enough to make those decisions. There has been one or two instances where there have been penalties that haven’t been awarded and you are hoping that those kinds of decisions don’t go against us tomorrow.
I think I’m right in saying Rangers are the only team in the Premiership who haven’t had a penalty given against them and sometimes subconsciously it can play on the minds of officials. You just hope that if we are to have one of those decisions tomorrow that they go in our favour and the referees are brave enough to make the calls needed.
So, of course, there is an element of luck involved but I don’t think we won the quarter-final by being lucky. I think Rangers made three or four changes to their starting 11 that definitely made it not be their strongest 11.
I think my players deserve a great deal of credit for the way they stopped Rangers playing, got close to them, got in their faces, denied them time and space on the ball which denied them getting any real rhythm into their game and that’s what we need to do tomorrow regardless of what team Steven Gerrard goes with.
St Mirren have won seven, lost one and drawn one of their last nine matches, on Saturday they won 2-0 away to Ross County.
SPFL Premiership
Penalties Conceded
20/21 Season
As at 28/12 (45)Ross County 8
Aberdeen 5
Celtic 5
Hibs 5
Motherwell 5
Kilmarnock 4
Livingston 4
Hamilton 3
St.Johnstone 3
St.Mirren 2
Dundee Utd 1
Rangers 0— Pie and Bovril ??????? (@pieandbov) December 28, 2020