HEARTS manager Steven Naismith has confessed that Rangers deserved their penalty in the Viaplay Cup semi-final – but expressed bemusement that his team were only awarded a spot kick after Stephen Kingsley had his red card rescinded by a VAR check.
The Tynecastle club lost the last four encounter with their Ibrox rivals 3-0 at Hampden this afternoon after conceding two goals to James Tavernier and also allowing Scott Wright to score in the second half.
Naismith admitted that referee Nick Walsh was correct to punish his goalkeeper Zander Clark for bringing down Danilo shortly after half-time – but he was furious that the match official had to look at his pitchside monitor before giving his team the chance to net from 12 yards.
Walsh initially sent Hearts defender Stephen Kinglsey off for a second bookable offence after ruling the former Scotland internationalist had dived in the opposition area – then he changed his mind after watching a reply and seeing that Ben Davies had kicked him.
READ MORE: Rangers 3 Hearts 1: Tavernier's brilliant brace sets up Hampden return
"Some people will say it was or it wasn't a penalty but I think he (Danilo) anticipates the ball,” he said. “As much as Zander (Clark) 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.
"The one thing I would add is I find it frustrating that the first thought for Celtic against us at Tynecastle was 'penalty', the first thought today for Rangers was 'penalty', but for us the first thought was 'red card'.
“I thought it (the Kingsley red) was crazy. To think he would try to dive when the ball is miles away, going out of the park. He was never going to get a penalty for a dive.
“It's just strange that that seems to happen and first thought is red card when it is a clear kick. There has been a few penalties in recent weeks with that stamp on the foot, Aberdeen in Europe was one. Why was it not just penalty then we can review it? It was red card then we'll review it which was strange for me.”
Naismith confessed that Hearts letting in another two goals so soon after falling behind had been the biggest frustration of the afternoon for him and he admitted that his team will need to improve if they want to achieve their ambitions.
READ MORE: Clement picks out six Rangers players for praise after Hearts win
"At 1-0, if you regroup and get some control then you don't know how the game goes,” he said. “If you are putting more pressure on, the game gets played in their half, then late on you see we get a penalty. If it's 1-0, then that's a defining point in the game. To concede the three goals is the part we need to learn from.
"There is a slight difference because it's a cup competition because at some point you do need to gamble. If it's 1-0 with half an hour to go, if we get a bit more control in the game and attack, then all it takes is one moment for a chance to score. Our header at 1-0, if that goes in it's one of those moments. So quickly after that you lose the goals and it's up to us to learn from that.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel