Bobby Madden throws Rangers penalty 'in the bin' alongside VAR as he echoes pundit's scathing one-word verdict

Madden says he's 'astonished' at the decision to award Rangers a penalty after Ross McCausland went down under Shamal George's challenge.

Bobby Madden reckons there's only one place for the decision to award Rangers their first penalty at Almondvale - in the BIN alongside VAR.

It was a day for VAR drama at Livingston as Rangers had two penalties given and two goals chalked off on route to a comfortable 2-0 win. But it's one instance where the technology didn't intervene that's sparked the most debate after the game as Steven McLean's decision to award their first spot-kick gets it in the neck.

The incident came when lively winger Ross McCausland charged through on goal and appeared to be brought down by Livi keeper Shamal George. Many felt he went down too softly and replays showed minimal contact but VAR opted not to call McLean over for a review. Ironically, it ended up being of little consequence, as James Tavernier sent the resulting penalty wide, but that has done little to quell the post-match debate.

Speaking about the decision on BBC Sportscene, Michael Stewart had just one word for it - 'nonsense.' And now former top ref Madden has had his say as he took to his Instagram story to voice his bewilderment. He wrote: "This is astonishing. Put it in the bin."

Madden's short and sharp social media quip appeared to reference his quotes on BBC radio from Saturday where he called for the technology itself to go on the scrap heap. When asked if he'd get rid of it on Sportsound, he said: "I was an advocate for VAR but I think in its current form, and you see the challenges it is causing in Scottish football, English football and across European competitions I think it's not serving the game well and I would rather put it in the bin."