David Gray weighs in on ‘inconsistency’ of handball rule in disallowed goal as Hibs lose to Rangers at Ibrox

By Gbam Godwin On Sep 21, 2025

David Gray weighs in on ‘inconsistency’ of handball rule in disallowed goal as Hibs lose to Rangers at Ibrox.

VAR ruling denied Martin Boyle an early opener in Premier Sports Cup quarterfinal defeat.

Hibs manager David Grey confesses he is disappointed with the “inconsistency” of the handball rule, which denied his team a fairytale beginning at Ibrox. But he had no complaints about Martin Boyle’s goal being disallowed in a 2-0 Premier Sports Cup quarter-final defeat to Rangers.

Grey was disappointed to concede two quick goals right before halftime, but he had no concerns about the outcome, citing the timing of concessions as a reoccurring issue this season.

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He also stated that his team’s disappointment at failing to win a cup quarter-final at Ibrox illustrates how far they have come in the last year.

Boyle appeared to have opened the scoring when he raced onto a Dylan Levitt ball over the top and beat Jack Butland with a low shot just 18 minutes into this evening’s live broadcast match, which had been preceded by protests from Rangers fans who were still calling for manager Russell Martin’s departure.

But referee Nick Walsh ruled the goal out after a VAR review revealed that the ball had struck Boyle’s left hand as he went through.

‘Right decision’ but Hibs boss still frustrated

When asked if he had any complaints about the decisions, a diplomatic Grey replied, “No, I believe I am frustrated, but only because of inconsistencies.

“I’m not frustrated by the decision; I believe it’s the right one. We were told that if a ball hits your hand and you gain an advantage by scoring a goal, it won’t be given.”

You can see that it does hit Boyle on the hand, and it is absolutely unintentional; I don’t think he benefits much from it. “He was running when it struck his hand.” So cutting it off was the proper decision based on what we were informed.

My main concern is that it is similar to what happened with our penalty decisions during games.

So it’s probably simply the inconsistency, which has been frustratingly used recently.” Grey had spent much of the build-up to this game downplaying the crisis talk surrounding Rangers, who had been defeated 2-0 at home by Hearts in the league just a week prior. When asked if he was frustrated that his squad had not been able to capitalise on the discomfort surrounding the Ibrox side, he highlighted Martin’s team’s evident qualities.

“My message to the players all week was to try as best as you can to ignore the noise, because all we can control is what we do,” he said. He continued: “I think going into the game I understood why people would say that, because of the result here last weekend with Hearts and everything else.”

However, based on the decisions made during the game, the outcome could have been extremely different. Rangers do not have awful players; they do, however, have a Premier League-experienced manager. “It’s a big club, and coming here is a tremendous challenge to win football games. I believe history demonstrates this, particularly for us.

“So we had to be at our best regardless of the situation; even if they weren’t at their best, they’re still good players with a demanding style of play. The team’s impressive rotations and ball movement made for a challenging test.

The disappointment aspect of it, and it maybe also shows how far we’ve gone as a group, that we’re genuinely unhappy that we didn’t get through to the next round of the cup coming to a venue like this. That demonstrates exactly how far we’ve come.

But I’m quick to remind them that there is still a lot of improvement to come from us as a group. “I think I said before the game that we had to be at our very best to win the game, to give ourselves the best chance of going through, to be at our best – and unfortunately, we weren’t today.” “Not due to a lack of effort or anything.”

And I think, even from the opening of the game, I thought we were good, I thought we were fairly comfortable, and we limited Rangers to very little opportunities. And I felt we posed the greatest threat.

“But to find ourselves 2-0 down with how the first half went was really tough to take. And probably the manner of the goals makes it even harder, I think.”

Nico Raskin goal a carbon copy of concession last season

Grey singled out Nico Raskin’s header for the first as a clear and present danger that had been pointed up to his players during preparations for this game, saying:

“The first goal was a set piece, something that we lost last season, Nico Raskin at the front post.” We showed them, and they are aware of it, which is not good enough, especially before half-time.

And then there are important times in the game when we have a great chance to score on the opposite end but miss.

And then, inevitably, we lose the goal shortly before halftime, which has happened far too often this season.”The timing of the goals we concede is putting us on the back foot. And it transformed the course of the game in the second half.