[0762]

A bit of common sense applied to that encroachment rule although I believe it has just been changed from last summer as I recall many incidents down the years of playing/watching footie - encroachment was deemed a pk retake and a normal ref decision if such a player offence was spotted. I must say it's hard to keep up with the regular rule amendments these days!! It was such an awful pk, Hibs didn't deserve a retake to be perfectly frank about it!! The pk miss is a repetitive episode of abject failure and "not doing a job properly" by another Hibs player, one of many down the years who do not perform in this particular fixture at all. Hence the diabolical record they have and will continue to have in this fixture even when Rangers arrogantly field their B or C sides against Hibs 3 days after a testy away Euro match. That sums up where we are as a footie club at the moment - Rangers can play badly (and they were crap btw!!!) and still win while Hibs just stumbling along as usual with the majority of players "getting a game" and happy to be there!!! Winning matches like this one can alter the whole outlook of a football season. The only problem is we don't look impressive enough to do that yet!!! I see too many players "getting a game" and that's a fact!! I don't want these players at Hibs and there is a good few of them still "getting a game"!!!! It means more than "just getting a game" to lots of passionate Hibs fans who want to see somebody appear on the "footie front" and raise expectations - effectively lift the spirits of a footie club that really needs to be lifted by individuals who have the appropriate personal skills and infectious drive to do that job. As for Rangers manager, Clements', post match questioning remarks re Hibs pk award, this is more of the same Rangers deliberate antagonistic "how dare you award a pk against us" behaviour; I'd call it implicit intimidation of refs and VAR officials!! Note this ref, Walsh, never had the gumption or courage to award that pk to Hibs - he left it to VAR!! And yet Souttar blocked a Hibs shot at goal, the ball was going directly towards the Rangers goal, but it was his outstretched arm that blocked the shot - a pk award and a simple ref decision in my humble opinion! Clements cynically "laying the ground rules" to Scottish referees for future matches IMO. Why? Because he's desperate and knows he has a fairly average group of players who cannot handle their more demanding fixture schedule after UEFA's revised league format schedule was introduced for the first time this season. They will suffer the consequences even though they are fortunate to be playing in a lower standard Scottish Premiership football league.