Faure claims Airdrie manager provoked Mohsni red

RANGERS defender Sebastian Faure claims he and his team-mate Bilel Mohsni were both physically provoked by Airdrie manager Gary Bollan during the scenes which led to Mohsni’s post-match dismissal on Thursday night.

Bilel Mohsni: Suspended tomorrow. Picture: SNS

Mohsni received a second booking from referee Greg Aitken after Rangers’ fractious 1-0 win at the Excelsior Stadium and is now suspended for the League 1 leaders’ match at Stenhousemuir tomorrow.

“The Airdrie manager pushed me and pushed Bilel too,” said Faure. “Bilel was very angry. Both the Airdrie striker [Jim Lister] and manager went to Bilel after the final whistle. He then got a second yellow card in the referee’s room and I don’t understand why.

“For me, Airdrie were aggressive and should not have finished the match with 11 players. The striker was always catching Bilel. It is okay to be physical when you play football but there were a lot of bad tackles on Thursday night. It started in the first half, with lots of fouls on Ian Black especially. If the referee had made their first booking earlier, maybe some of the tackles afterwards would not have happened.”

Former Lyon player Faure believes the combative approach of opponents in the third tier of Scottish football is a factor in Rangers being unable to produce consistently fluent performance levels. “When you play away from home against some of the teams we face, it is the game of their lives,” added the 23-year-old. “So it is difficult for us. Sometimes against Rangers, the opposition players play so hard.

“It was a good first half for us on Thursday night, but the second half was difficult because we had played on Monday night against the team who are second in the table. We were playing against Airdrie, who are bottom of the table, but sometimes you can play better against the teams who are higher up the league. But it was very important to get the three points, so we are happy.”