Rangers hero in surprising Nick Walsh U-turn as red card blame shifted
01/29/2025 05:00 AM
Kris Boyd was one of the first to go all in on Nick Walsh after his “mystifying” decision to send off Rangers’ Mohamed Diomande.
The vast majority, apart from Chris Sutton, were in agreement that there was nothing they could see to justify the Ivorian midfielder being given his marching orders after being shoved by Dundee United’s Kevin Holt.
On punditry duty that day for Sky Sports, Boyd had a pop at ‘stubborn’ Walsh over his decision not to change his mind on the call after revieing the incident on the VAR monitor.
Philippe Clement immediately vowed to appeal it and Rangers had their vindication when the bid was successful yesterday, and the player will have no suspension to serve.
It was no surprise in one sense as even former referee Dermot Gallagher backed Gers and admitted he was ‘surprised’ it wasn’t overturned at the VAR stage.
Ally McCoist and Billy Dodds had added their voices to Boyd’s with the latter admitting the use of VAR was ‘mystifying’.
Boyd admits Walsh not to blame for Rangers red
But Boyd has surprisingly backtracked on his original comments. While not changing his mind about the call ultimately being wrong, he has decided to lay off Walsh a bit.
He admits he has sympathy for the whistler because he wasn’t given the opportunity to see the flashpoint from a different angle on the screen.
Boyd understands why he thought he saw a slap in the first instance, and then the images shown to him were all from the same angle.
Speaking on The Scottish’ Sun’s Go Ballistic podcast, he said: “It was a strange one. I’m glad that it has been overturned and Diomande can continue to play because he has been a big player for Rangers.
“One the incident itself, I can understand why Nick Walsh issued the red card to start with, in terms of the angle that he saw it.
“But when he goes to the monitor, that’s really the only angle he sees again. He doesn’t really see any other one.
“In a way, you can look at it and say there is a little bit of sympathy there for Nick Walsh in terms of he didn’t see any other angles…so did VAR do its job properly? Probably not.
“Kevin Holt’s head didn’t move, from that angle that Nick Walsh saw, I get it. But if you start giving out cards, Declan Gallagher was involved as well, who was already booked. Kevin Holt had a couple of shoves.
“None of them were booked, Diomande was sent off. I’m just glad that it was overturned and someone saw a bit of common sense.”
What Boyd had originally said on Walsh
He furiously told Sky Sports: "Embarrassing. I think sometimes when you go to the monitor you can be too stubborn, sometimes you've just got to admit you got it wrong. And Nick Walsh should've.
"There is no excessive force, there is no brutality and if I'm Rangers I would have my appeal in right now.
"I think it's a little bit inconclusive if he even slaps him. There's no excessive force.
“I cannot understand. Nick Walsh is right there and from his angle it might look as if he's slapped him. But it's inconclusive.
"I think sometimes you can be quick to react, I think Nick Walsh has done that. He's then had four or five, or maybe more times, to look at it. Sometimes you can be too stubborn.
"I think that one will be overturned. It should be appealed anyway."
