Dermot Gallagher baffled by Rangers penalty denial after Cyriel Dessers shirt pull as decision bucks VAR trend

Dermot Gallagher has expressed his surprise after Cyriel Dessers was denied a penalty against Hearts.

The Rangers striker had his shirt pulled back by home defender Frankie Kent in the box and appealed to referee Don Robertson after the incident. The two clubs played out a six goal thriller in the capital in the final day of the Scottish Premiership season with Hearts going ahead through Lawrence Shankland before the Light Blues hit three goals thanks to Ross McCausland, Todd Cantwell and Fabio Silva. But the home side roared back with late goals from Dexter Lembikisa and Kyosuke Tagawa to earn a share of the points.

But one incident in that Tynecastle clash made it onto Sky Sports' weekly Ref Watch segment with former whistler Gallagher in no doubt that the wrong decision had been made. He believes Rangers should have had a penalty and was quite surprised that it wasn't flagged up for a check with VAR in Scotland being very strong on handballs and shirt pulls in the box.

Gallagher explained: "I thought it was a foul and I was surprised this wasn't referred. What you would say about the Scottish VAR, handballs they have been very, very strong on and anything like this with shirt pulling. It is not so much he pulls his shirt, but how far he pulls it. But I think penalty."

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