Derek McInnes vents at 'extremely harsh' Rangers red card call as VAR double whammy leaves Kilmarnock boss frustrated

Derek McInnes felt his Kilmarnock were hard done by after being hit with VAR’s spot-kick double whammy.

The Rugby Park side snuck ahead against Rangers thanks to James Tavernier’s own goal. But their hopes of clinging to that lead suffered a major blow when they had Joe Wright dismissed for a goal line handball. Tavernier blew the chance to make amends for his earlier mistake as he saw his penalty brilliantly pushed away by Will Dennis but McInnes felt a free shot at goal would have been punishment enough for the incident.

The Killie gaffer said: “It was good character and personality to get ourselves in front against the odds and going 1-0 up at a place like Ibrox it is important you have confidence. Scoring the first goal is magic for that. But the game changes on the sending off. We got ourselves in a bit of a fankle to be honest. And then it’s the whole thing about doubt jeopardy – there is no doubt it has hit Joe’s arm but I think it is accidental although he stopped a goal-scoring opportunity.

"Penalty? Yes. Sending off? If that is the rule, then it is the rule, but I am not sure it should be the rule. I thought it was extremely harsh given the circumstances. I don’t think he has deliberately swung his hand out to stop a goal. And the penalty would have sufficed.”

Killie’s hopes of clinging on to their lead were wiped out when Fabio Silva netted with the last kick of the half - with Gers then adding a further three after the break. McInnes added: “Obviously Will makes the save and there’s eight minutes of added time, and I know there were two or three VAR checks, but eight minutes seemed quite a lot. I spoke to the fourth official and he said thirty seconds to go and that was in the lead up, so it was the very last