Rangers star Malik Tillman has accused Partick Thistle’s players of failing to act in a “very correct human way” after their fiery clash at the weekend.
Michael Beale’s side hosted Partick at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup on Sunday looking to advance into the next round and continue his unbeaten start to life in Scotland.
It proved to be an interesting clash between the two sides to say the least, with Rangers’ Tillman the centre of a hugely controversial moment in the 71st minute.
Having been down injured he was unaware of a drop ball situation and, rather than letting Partick return the ball to Rangers, he challenged captain Kevin Holt for the ball, taking it off him and putting it into the back of the net.
That sparked fury and a melee between the two sides before Beale instructed Rangers to allow Scott Tiffoney to run through unchallenged to level the scores in a commendable act of sportsmanship.
Rangers went on to win the game thanks to a late own goal from Connor McAvoy but that naturally played second fiddle afterwards as questions were raised about what had gone on.
Beale insisted in his interviews that Tillman had been unaware of the situation at hand and defended his player, something the Rangers man has confirmed to Kicker, although he was unimpressed by how he was treated regardless.
“I was fouled and treated and didn’t realise that my teammate Antonio Colak had then played the ball out of bounds,” he told the German magazine.
“When the others threw the ball in, I thought it would go on as normal. And it didn’t look to me as if the defender wanted to hit the ball over to us. That’s why I took the ball from him and scored the goal.
“Then (when Partick’s players surrounded him) it was also clear to me that something was wrong. My teammates explained it to me.
“We let them score the goal to make it 2:2, so that cleared it up for me. And we still won the game “fairly”.
“But I didn’t want to have anything more to do with those players, because when they all came running towards me, they didn’t act in a very correct human way.”
