Hearts boss Steven Naismith questions ‘crazy’ refereeing decisions in Rangers Viaplay Cup semi-final defeat

The Jambos head coach was left frustrated by several aspects of their semi-final defeat to Rangers

Steven Naismith, the manager of Hearts, has questioned a few of the officiating calls that went against his team during Sunday’s Viaplay Cup semi-final loss to Rangers at Hampden.

At the National Stadium, the Jambos were defeated 3-1 by Philippe Clement’s Gers. However, after his team’s loss, whistler Nick Walsh would feel the raft of the Jambos manager.

James Tavernier scored the penalty kick for Rangers early in the second half after Danilo was fouled by Hearts goalkeeper Zander Clark. Scott Wright, who had been substituted at halftime, then added a swift second minutes later. The game was decided by Tavernier’s incredible free kick from the edge of the box; all three goals came inside a quarter of an hour.

After Walsh initially gave full-back Stephen Kingsley a second yellow card for stumbling under Ben Davies’ challenge, then overturned the judgement after examining the incident on the pitchside VAR monitor, Hearts eventually got a penalty of their own. What turned out to be a consolation goal for the Edinburgh club went to Lawrence Shankland.

“We had a chance to get to a final and didn’t manage it so I’m really disappointed,” stated Livid Naismith. We were cagey in the first half, but we were able to regroup at the break and discuss areas where we could have improved just a little bit. After halftime, the penalty changes the game so rapidly.

Some will argue that it was a penalty or not, but as a forward, I believe Danilo was anticipates the ball. As much as Zander is trying to get out of the way, his momentum takes him into his foot. If it was for us, I think I would be asking for it.

“One more thing I would want to add to that is that I find it upsetting that Celtic’s initial instinct against us at Tynecastle was “penalty,” and that same thought applied to us tonight, but our initial thought was “red card.”

When asked what he thought when Kingsley was given a red card before Walsh changed his mind, Naismith answered truthfully, “Crazy. To believe he would attempt a diving jump when the ball is far away is absurd. He was not going to be penalised for taking a dive. It’s simply odd that when it appears to happen, people automatically say “red card” even though it’s obviously a kick.

“There have been a few penalties with the stamp on the foot in recent weeks; Aberdeen in Europe was one of them. Why wasn’t it just a fine so we could review it? It was a red card, so we’ll review it, which I found odd.