Anatomy of a red card. Why was Rangers’ Lundstram sent off?

Rangers are to appeal John Lundstram’s red card at Easter Road, with few of a blue persuasion believing it was a justified sending off.

Ibrox Noise considered the challenge deeply reckless, bordering on dangerous, and while we’d have been happy with a yellow, had it been a player upon us we’d have demanded a red.

Which, of course, fans did sort of earlier that half when Jake Doyle-Hayes did the same on Lundstram and only got a yellow.

Fans were outraged that the Hibs lad got a yellow while our man got a red. For what they reckoned was the same tackle.

There’s similarities for sure, but there’s also key differences and that’s what we’ll look at now.

The big one is the circumstances.

Lundstram was simply in possession (moving away from Hibs’ goal) when he got halved, but Boyle was on a dangerous counter, caused by Ryan Kent’s shocking pass, when Lundstram cynically removed him from play.

Was it goalscoring? Of course not. Was it dangerous? Well, studs down the calves, which is what it amounted to, isn’t exactly applauded.

And that’s another difference. Doyle-Hayes swiped Lunny from behind – a mistimed and bad attempt to get the ball, but it wasn’t dangerous. It was a blatant and clear yellow. But Lunny’s was a crude and reckless tackle to take a man out specifically to stop him advancing.

Was it a straight red?

Had Doyle-Hayes’ tackle been the same on Ryan Kent in a counter, 100% we’d demand the red card.

Whether the ref would agree we’ll never know.

Rangers should 100% appeal, because that’s our right, and if we win, great, no complaints. But if we lose, similarly none from Ibrox Noise.