Ally McCoist in stitches at Rangers penalty paranoia as loaded Jeff Stelling stats bomb volleyed towards Celtic

Smirking Ally McCoist has laughed off Jeff Stelling's conspiracy theory over the number of penalties awarded to Rangers this season.

And the Ibrox hero was quick to flip the script on his talkSPORT co-host as he pointed out that Celtic had more penalties than the Light Blues so far this term. Philippe Clement's side were awarded a spot-kick in the win over Dundee after Aaron Donnelly was penalised for a tug on Abdallah Sima’s jersey, after referee Kevin Clancy had been sent to the monitor by VAR Steven Kirkland. Clancy had originally waved play on, but James Tavernier slammed home the spot kick - his ninth of the campaign so far.

And it was clear that former Sky Sports News host Stelling had been chatting to Hoops' die hard Alan Brazil before going on the airwaves and putting McCoist on the spot by rhyming off the stats from the season so far. Stelling asked the former Rangers striker and boss: 'Al (Alan Brazil) always says Rangers get an unfair advantage when it comes to officiating in Scotland, what do you make of it?"

McCoist laughed: "What a lot of nonsense, man. Absolute nonsense. If we are going down that road we are questioning the integrity of Scottish referees, and Scottish referees and officials - that same as referees and officials all over the country, Europe and the world - make mistakes."

Stelling kept going - listing off the stats going back as far as Steven Gerrard's tenure: "Of course James Tavernier scored his ninth penalty in 10 domestic matches for Rangers on Saturday. It's a pattern that has sort of developed since Steven Gerrard took over. Rangers have won more penalties over the last six seasons than any other team..."

McCoist clapped back: 'But not this season. Not this season." Undeterred