Philippe Clement gets Rangers scattergun out as SPFL and 'strange' ref call vs Celtic caught in two-pronged takedown

Raging Philippe Clement took on the SPFL and referee Nick Walsh after derby day defeat to Celtic in two heated interviews.

The Scottish Premiership leaders moved eight points clear of the Light Blues as the Belgian suffered his first defeat since taking over at Ibrox. Paulo Bernardo and Kyogo found the net for the home side before Leon Balogun saw red for a pull on Daizen Maeda.

Captain James Tavernier fired a free-kick beyond Joe Hart but the 10-men couldn't pull a goal back and in front of a full-house at Celtic Park. Rangers fans remain locked out of the away end after the Ibrox board took their complaints over the allocation to SPFL board sub-committee which agreed Celtic's stance of providing zero tickets to the club was unreasonable. However, Celtic stood by their away fan ban on derby day citing safety concerns. But Clement took aim at the call following the full-time whistle telling Rangers TV: "I think our players showed a lot of good things. The showed character and quality.

"We had more shots in an away game with no supporters allowed. That is a really strange thing that a federation allows that. That a team can decide who is coming in or not."

The decision to not punish Alistair Johnston for what appeared to be a handball in the closing stages of the first half came in for particular criticism from the boss. Sky later clarified Abdallah Sima was in an offside position in the build-up to the spot-kick claim. In a second interview, Clement said: "The result is not good of course because you want to win. But we had more shots today than Celtic. We played 15 minutes with 10 players and that was the right decision. It's a red card. In that action we didn't do well.

"But I have other questions also about the