Craig Levein makes 'good tackle' claim over St Johnstone challenge that Rangers boss branded a leg-breaker

What the St Johnstone manager said after the 2-0 defeat at Ibrox

Referee Alan Muir shows St Johnstone's Diallang Jaiyesimi a red card following a VAR check. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Craig Levein did not even attempt to form an argument that his team were hard done by after St Johnstone’s hopes of securing a result against Rangers at Ibrox were undone by a first-half red card to Diallang Jaiyesimi.

The forward caught John Lundstram high and late and although only yellow carded by Alan Muir at the time, a VAR review led to an upgrade to red.

“I thought it was a red card,” said Levein. “I though the referee was right. In the modern day that’s a red – certainly if it had happened to one of our players I’d be calling for a red card so I am not going to sit here and say anything different.”

Rangers were already leading 1-0 through substitute Cyriel Dessers, while skipper James Tavernier added a penalty with five minutes left.

Levein praised his players for sticking to their task and defended Daniel Phillips, whose full-blooded challenge on Kieran Dowell in the second half was referenced afterwards by unhappy Rangers manager Philippe Clement. He complained that the “intensity was there to break a leg”. Clement had already lost Lundstram, who had to be replaced at half-time with an ankle injury following Jaiyesimi’s wild challenge. He was further outraged by what he considered was Phillips’ overly forceful tackle in the middle of the park.

But Levein reckoned otherwise. “I thought that was a good tackle,” he said. The St Johnstone manager drew plenty of positives from a display that he said had allowed his side to “get out” of Ibrox with a 2-0 defeat despite playing over an hour with ten men.

“The boys could have crumbled going down a man and being 1-0 down,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse than it was. They showed great determination to keep the score as it was and they tried in the second half to build some play and create some chances. All in all I am disappointed of course that we did not get any points from this but there was enough in the match to allow us to talk about some really positive things.”