The Welsh substitute was dismissed on 77 minutes for a dangerous tackle on Alfredo Morelos. Referee David Munro originally flashed a yellow card but on the advice of VAR, he reviewed the challenge on the TV monitor and upgraded the decision to a red. Rangers then equalised Joel Nouble’s early goal through a 90th-minute strike by John Lundstram to deny Livingston their first-ever win at Ibrox.
“It’s a red card all day,” admitted Martindale. “I thought that at the time. I thought we’d been very lucky and had got away with one. At the time I thought it could be a red card and as soon as he went to the monitor, I knew he was coming off. I don’t think there was any malice in the tackle. Coming into a high intensity game, it’s very hard to pick up the pace there and then. It’s probably one he shouldn’t be going into challenge for. He’s a wee bit late. I’ve no complaints with the red card.”
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Hide AdMartindale, however, felt that Livingston would have held on for the win had they kept 11 men on the pitch. “The game went how I envisaged it to go,” continued the Livi boss. “We knew the areas of the park where we would give Rangers possession. Up until the sending-off, I think we were in control. It may not have looked like that because we gave up possession. We knew we could deal with cross balls from wide areas. We stopped them. We limited them to very little. We knew we would probably get very few opportunities ourselves and we would have to take them. We did that very early on. Bar probably the strike from Lundstram and a save from our keeper, I don’t think we had a lot to worry about. With 11 men, I genuinely think we would have picked up three points. We tried at the start to get a second goal but it’s very difficult.”
