Alfredo Morelos and the unseen Celtic penalty claim pinpointed as Rangers star told VAR should have ‘kicked in’

Neil McCann reckons Rangers should have been awarded a penalty for an unseen pull on Alfredo Morelos during Rangers defeat to Celtic.

It was a game packed with incidents as the Colombian striker was denied the opening goal of the at Celtic Park when he was adjudged to have fouled Alistair Johnston in the box before putting the ball beyond Joe Hart, with referee Kevin Clancy being backed up over the call by Nick Walsh in the VAR room. Both Michael Beale and captain James Tavernier also accused Celtic winger Jota of handball in the build up to Kyogo’s second goal on derby day, which was not flagged by the officials.

McCann insists he has spotted a third incident which could have seen Rangers awarded a crucial spot-kick in the second half. As Borna Barisic’s corner was whipped in, Johnston and Morelos were involved in another tussle in the box with the Ibrox frontman eventually tumbling to the floor.

The incident was not flagged up by the VAR room and whistler Clancy did not flag up the original incident. McCann told Sportscene that these flashpoints were the reason VAR was introduced in the Scottish Premiership.

The former Ibrox star said: “You can see Johnston has a grip of Morelos jersey, and you can see Greg Taylor is pinning, bear-hugging Ryan Jack in front of the goalkeeper. That is a big grab of the jersey (on Morelos). Now if the referee can’t see that, that is when VAR should kick in and say come and have a look.”

READ NEXT