The tone for today’s refereeing was set in the first five minutes as Bobby Madden decided to take no action as Alfredo Morelos raked his studs down Jeremie Frimpong’s heel.
Having tracked back and played the ball inside the defender wasn’t anticipating the attack that was about to follow. Madden, an assistant and the Fourth Official Nick Walsh all had a clear view of the incident but there was no card or even a word of warning to the Ibrox striker.
Morelos on Frimpong and Davis on McGregor( I think it was him) I don’t have video of it, yet pic.twitter.com/GIM0fKvSEJ
— Patrick S Murphy (@PatrickSMurphy4) January 2, 2021
Had Morelos been booked he would have had to change the way he acted through the rest of the match.
When he was finally booked in the 75th minute Steven Gerrard wasn’t taking any more chances, within two minutes he was replaced by Cedric Itten. Had he been booked for the early foul on Frimpong the 75th minute incident would have resulted in a red card and 10 v 10 for the last 15 minutes.
Nothing can be done about today’s result but if Madden spends a long spell away from high profile matches it might serve as a reminder to match officials that the same Laws of the game are applied from the first whistle to the last, there is no warm up period.