Smith queries Muir calls

Walter Smith claims referee Alan Muir was guilty of some questionable decisions as Rangers scraped a 2-1 win over Kilmarnock in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

El-Hadji Diouf grabbed his first goal at Ibrox before Jamie Hamill levelled from the penalty spot and an own-goal from Tim Clancy decided the clash late on. Smith felt Rangers could have had a spot-kick of their own when Nikica Jelavic appeared to be fouled on the box, while Kilmarnock also thought they could have had more than one penalty.

When quizzed about the decisions, Smith said: "Were Kilmarnock not fortunate? Was Jelavic's not a penalty? He turned the boy and was pulled down in the box and it was a penalty kick. If Kilmarnock's penalty is a penalty and that one isn't, then I've wasted my time in football for a long while. I couldn't understand the decision."

He added: "Also, I don't mind any of the opposition wasting time at any given time, I don't mind that all. But, for the Kilmarnock goalkeeper to go through 90 minutes wasting the amount of time that he wasted and for the referee not to speak to him once, was an amazing factor.

"It was absolutely amazing. In the European games, if our goalies try to waste time, the referees warn them early. Here, they don't.

"It's a fairly amazing one so I don't think anyone could say anyone got away with any decisions. In fact, quite a few of the decisions over the 90 minutes were questionable."

However, Smith insists he would not have used the referee's performance as an excuse had Rangers not taken maximum points.

The win allowed Rangers to move to within two points of leaders Celtic, with a game in hand, and throw the title race wide open again.

Smith said: "These things happen in a game. If we hadn't won, we would have looked at ourselves and said our performance was a little below par.

"But because I was asked about penalties, doesn't mean I'm saying anything about deserving to win or otherwise."