Bilel Mohsni believes decision cost him ninth goal

Bilel Mohsni vents his anger after his goal is ruled out. Picture: SNS

The centre-half has set himself an audacious target of 20 goals this term after bagging his eighth in last Monday’s win at Forfar and he claims that he should have been on the scoresheet again in Saturday’s 3-2 victory at Ibrox.

Rangers were twice forced to fight back from behind in the Scottish League One clash and, moments after the second equaliser, Mohsni had the ball in the net when he reacted quickly to fire home the rebound after a David Templeton strike hit the post.

But his goal celebrations were cut short when the effort was disallowed for offside by referee Barry Cook – on the advice of his assistant – before a late Lee McCulloch penalty eventually secured all three points for the Light Blues.

Mohsni said: “When Temps had the ball, I was directly looking at the centre-back near to me. I knew I was onside. The referee made a mistake, but we won in the end.”

Goals from David Banjo and Bobby Linn early in each half were cancelled out by Jon Daly and Templeton, before McCulloch converted from the spot to take Rangers 23 points clear at the top of the table.

Mohsni added: “I don’t think it was a difficult game – we just didn’t start well in the first half and the second half. After that, we played very well and kept the ball.”

For the second game in a row, Templeton came off the bench to have a goal-scoring impact on the match. Mohsni said: “This is his job. Every sub when they come on knows what’s happening because it’s very easy to watch from outside.

“After he came on against Forfar, he did brilliantly. It was the same in this game, too.

“We know he’s a fantastic player so I think he can do this in every game. He scored another goal and it was very important for us.”

Arbroath boss Paul Sheerin said: “In the end, we are pretty disappointed. I thought the boys were excellent and the penalty was a massive blow for us.

“Even at 2-1, I thought we were reasonably comfortable and starting to frustrate them more. But that’s the quality they’ve got, they score goals out of nothing to get themselves back in it and the momentum is with them again.”