Know the Ref - Rangers away

Last updated : 02 March 2010 By Stuart Gillespie

Three results in the past few years stick out. One was just a month ago when Mr Richmond was in charge of our stunning League Cup semi-final win over Hearts. He put in a good display that night, although Ian Black was lucky not to be sent off. Mr Richmond was also in charge of last season's cup win over Celtic when he even gave us a penalty, although failed to send Stephen McManus off. The other game that provides hope for Saturday is back in December 2008, when Stephen McGinn almost gave us a shock win at Parkhead only for Celtic to score a late equaliser.

To see the rest of this referee's games with Saints, go to: http://www.stmirren-mad.co.uk/roll/ed16/know_the_ref__hearts_semifinal_489854/index.shtml

So far this season, Mr Richmond has done three Rangers games - and they've only won one. There's a home draw against Hibs and two games against Hamilton in the Scottish Cup - the original and the replay. Rangers were actually behind in the original game before receiving their regulation soft penalty. Strangely, despite his wealth of experience, Mr Richmond only did one Rangers game last season, which was a comfortable home win over Falkirk.

The 2007/08 season saw him take charge of five Rangers games and they won all but one. They won at Falkirk, Inverness Caley Thistle and Hibs and beat Motherwell at home. The only blip was a draw with Dundee United at Tannadice.

There's a magnificent seven games to look at if you go back another year and although they didn't lose, Rangers did drop points on a number of occasions. They drew at Dunfermline and at Hibs (who had a man sent off) and drew with Motherwell and Hearts at home. On the plus side, they did beat us (oops) at Love Street and they also managed wins over Hibs and Aberdeen. By comparison, there were only three games for Mr Richmond in 2005/06 - wins over Falkirk and Dundee United and a draw with United, despite having a man sent off late on.

The stats for the previous season show home wins over Dunfermline and Hearts. This official's first Rangers game was back in 2003/04 and was a comfortable win over the Pars.

So, from this we can see Mr Richmond has never been in charge of a game Rangers have lost. More worryingly, he's averaging more than a red card every three games - and his last three matches have passed without him issuing a red card...