Nick Montgomery slams 2 Rangers flashpoints as Celtic throwback noted by Hibs boss in bristling defence

Fuming Nick Montgomery has slammed referee Steven McLean’s decision to hand Rangers a penalty as well as send off Nathan Moriah-Welsh.

It was a controversial clash at Easter Road with the visitors taking the lead after Jordan Obita was adjudged to have chopped down Dujon Sterling in the box – with referee McLean pointing to the penalty spot. James Tavernier would see his penalty saved by David Marshall before John Lundstram netted the rebound – and in the second half temperatures would boil over.

Obita would receive his second yellow card of the afternoon when he was caught in a tussle with Rabbi Matondo – and just two minutes later the man in the middle issued Moriah-Welsh a straight red card for a lunge on Lundstram. Rangers would take advantage of the extra two men as Fabio Silva netted to seal the victory in the closing exchanges.

However, the Hibs boss was less than pleased by the big calls and he told Viaplay: “I thought for periods of the game we were on top and should have got back into the game. In the second half with our final pass maybe a few things didn’t go our way again.

‘I’m really disappointed. I thought there was some bad decisions in there. I will have to look over them again but watching it live I don’t know how it’s not a foul on Martin Boyle leading to their penalty.

“I am really surprised at that one and frustrated. We had an incident like that a couple of weeks ago against Celtic where Martin Boyle got clipped from behind and he got a booking from it.

“Today we got a penalty given against us. I’m not saying it is not a penalty I am saying the consistency on decisions is the frustrating thing. Young Nathan is 21-years-old and is trying to go and block a ball down the line. Again, from what I have seen there is no contact and it’s a yellow card.

“I am surprised he didn’t go to the VAR monitor and take a look at it for himself. So yeah, really proud of the boys effort against a very, very good Rangers team. I thought we had them on the back foot for long periods of that game and unfortunately we didn’t punish them.”