We knew he was going to try and even it up- Broadfoot accuses Ibrox referee

Kirk Broadfoot has spilled the beans on Scottish referees with surprisingly candid comments on David Dickinson.

After a second Morton penalty claim within two minutes forced the match referee to consult the VAR monitor Dickinson reluctantly pointed to the penalty spot with Grant Gillespie putting the visitors in front.

Six minutes later Dickinson was on more familiar ground as he awarded the homeside a penalty for shirt pulling by Broadfoot.

There is an element of shirt pulling at every set-piece delivered into the penalty box, on yesterday’s ruling Dickinson will be awarding half a dozen in every match.

Broadfoot told the Daily Record:

I don’t even know why the first one had to go VAR – it’s a stonewall penalty. For the second one, even the Rangers boys didn’t know what it was for. They were asking if it was for a handball.

As soon as he goes to the screen, it’s a pen. It was inevitable. We knew he was going to try and even it up. Nobody claimed it, he’s not getting the ball. The ref says I stopped him from trying to score a goal. Is this what we’re going to give penalties for now? It’s ridiculous. I’m glad we don’t have VAR in the Championship.

Dickinson and is colleagues are on a 56 match run without awarding a penalty against the Ibrox club. David Munro was on VAR duty yesterday.

When it last happened Stephen Glass and Giovani van Bronckhorst were in the dug-outs as Lewis Ferguson netted past Allan McGregor.

Broadfoot is of course an expert on dubious penalties to clubs from Ibrox, in October 2010 Willie Collum awarded a penalty against Celtic with his back to play based on Broadfoot squealing.

That decision set Collum up for more than a decade of top match fees, very generous expenses and lucrative European appointments. Dickinson and others know the template to success with the SFA.