BLAME JAMBOS BAD BOYS, NOT THE REFEREE; BRIAN McGINLAY has his say on the red card rumpus that rocked football.

It's easy to look at the debris of Ibrox and lay the blame at the door of Gerry Evans.

But I blame the players.

Gerry Evans is one of the last guys to brandish red cards for nothing.

But on Saturday he had no choice.

From watching the TV highlights on Saturday I have to say that the four sendings- off came about because of the total indiscipline of the Hearts players.

AND IT'S A WORRYING TREND IN THE GAME.

I was at Boghead last week and saw three St Mirren players sent off in one match by Jim McCluskey - probably THE most unlikely ref to show so many red cards.

That's seven red cards in two games and I couldn't fault any of the decisions.

I have to say that I'd hate to be refereeing in this era.

Look at the incidents at Ibrox. First of all Bruno was sent off for what we can safely assume to be persistent fouling.

Gerry knew he had a supervisor up in the stand watching what was going on.

That supervisor has a list of players and he ticks their name every time they commit a foul.

And the Italian was picking up so many ticks that the ref would have been slaughtered if he hadn't sent him off.

In addition, most of them were for offences against Brian Laudrup - and how many times have you heard people crying out for protection for the ball players?

With one booking against him, Bruno then took Gordon Durie down with a rugby tackle and a pull of the shirt.

That's an automatic yellow card and can't be judged as a miss timed tackle.

As for Davie Weir, he quite clearly made a butting gesture at Durie. Under the rules, any attempt to strike another player with your head results in a red card and you could see Evans explaining this as he sent the Hearts player from the field.

IT WAS SHEER MADNESS BY WEIR.

Next it was Neil Pointon who had already been cautioned before his blatant show of dissent.

You can argue whether or not the linesman HAD to make a point of this, but as soon as he raised his flag Gerry Evans was left with no choice but to send Pointon packing as well.

Even in my day, you had to do what the linesman told you if you hadn't seen a particular incident yourself.

If Gerry had decided to ignore what the linesman told him, he probably would never have refereed another game in his life.

The supervisor would have included it in his report and the SFA would have asked both men for their comments.

The linesman would have said he told Evans to book Pointon and send him off. And Gerry Evans would have been the one in trouble.

It was exactly the same scenario when Paul Ritchie was sent packing.

You have to say this was all caused by a degree of stupidity by the Hearts players.

In the current climate when fiscals and police are threatening to get involved, it's up to the officials to take action ON the park - that's rammed down their throats at every meeting these days.

And it's becoming virtually impossible not to show cards when indiscipline is so dreadful.

It was much easier in my time because the players were under far more control. If we're to get back to that, the clubs and the managers must take some responsibility.

I had to laugh the other week after that incident in the tunnel at Brockville. The linesman was getting slated for not stopping Albert Craig as he ran after Gareth Evans.

But Craig also ran straight past the Falkirk dugout - who do YOU think should have got a hold of him?

Mind you, I watched Zaragossa v Valencia on satellite the other night - 11 booked and one sent off.

At least we're not alone!

Taken from the Daily Record