Malky Mackay Rangers fury as Ross County boss says James Sands should have been sent off

Malky Mackay has spoken of his astonishment that James Sands was not sent off for what was like a rugby tackle on Jordy Hiwula with Rangers and Ross County goal-less at Ibrox.

And Gers boss Gio van Bronckhorst has virtually admitted the same after deciding to take off the American defender, who had already been booked for a similar foul, at half-time recognising that he could be a liability in the second half.

Rangers went on to win 4-0 but Mackay knows that if they had gone down to 10 men early in the match it could have produced a very different outcome. The latest body blow to County comes after both Ross Callachan and Jack Baldwin were banned from the Ibrox game for retrospective red cards from last week's Kilmarnock match.

Mackay said: "Sands pulls down Jordy with two hands around his waist. He’d been booked but it’s inexplicable how it’s not a straight red, never mind a booking which would also take him off.

"They took him off at half time which shows what they think. I can’t see how anyone who sees it on TV will think differently. The dynamics of the game changes if he goes off. I’m not saying what might happen but Aberdeen against Livingston was 0-0, Livingston lose a player and it’s 5-0 to Aberdeen.

"There weren’t bodies in between, it was very straightforward. There was no need for him to go down, he rolled him and he was away. We are disappointed with that. It makes it more sore that we’ve had two players cited and banned retrospectively by the Scottish FA during the week. You need correct decisions to go for you at Ibrox After 17 minutes we were doing fine, they go down to ten and things can change."

Van Bronckhorst told the BBC about why he took him off: "We already had James on a booking. I think it was a