Chris Sutton made an unscheduled contribution to Sky Sports’ coverage of the SPFL ‘action’ from Ibrox yesterday.
The former Celtic striker was excused from being at the scene of the match with Kris Boyd and Neil McCann sharing their expert views with the audience.
You would struggle to get a MENSA application form between the views of McCann and Boyd but Sutton can be relied on for a view contrary to the accepted Scottish media group-think.
While the studio guests discussed whether it was the right decision to award a penalty against John Souttar the wider debate was why the defender wasn’t sent off for deliberate handball to prevent a goal scoring opportunity.
Boyd, McCann, Jack Ross and James McFadden would happily have avoided the red card aspect but watching from afar Sutton raised the most important aspect of the incident.
The Sun reports Boyd saying:
Even Chris Sutton would say [Lawrence] is onside, although I have had a few messages from him complaining but it’s an unbelievable finish when he cuts it back in.
My big friend has also text me asking why [Souttar] hasn’t been sent off. He text me straight away asking ‘why no red card?’
He has not been sent off because Jack Butland was behind him and he would have saved it.
As Kyogo Furuhashi demonstrated at the start of the month even with 25 yards to prepare there is no guarantee that Butland would make a save.
At Hampden in May the former Crystal Palace keeper couldn’t hold onto a long range shot from Paulo Bernardo, spilling a rebound into the path of Adam Idah.
Willie Collum won’t be short of talking points for his monthly VAR review show, most interest will be on the incidents left out of the discussion.
Buttland is a decent keeper but yes Kyogo showed he probably wouldn’t have saved it it?