SUTTON RIPS INTO IBROX FLOPS

CHRIS SUTTON insists there would be no civil war in Scottish football if Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox side hadn’t “made a rip-roaring a**e” of the title race.

The Govan club dropped a massive 13 points after returning from the mid-winter break and their call for an independent investigation into the SPFL hierarchy collapsed following the vote among all 42 senior clubs.

The resolution was overwhelmingly defeated by 27 to 12 – with two teams abstaining – in the ballot at the EGM yesterday, as CQN reported.

Interim chairman Douglas Park and the rest of the Ibrox board had also demanded the immediate suspension of Hampden chief executive Neil Doncaster and the organisation’s legal adviser Rod McKenzie.

They called for the SPFL to be put on trial after last month’s vote that saw a premature end to the season in the three lower leagues with the titles handed to Dundee United, Raith Rovers and Cove Rangers with Partick Thistle and Stranraer relegated.

The Scottish soccer supremos are also empowered to award the Premiership crown to Celtic for the ninth successive season with Neil Lennon’s men sitting top of the league with a 13-point advantage with only eight games to go. They also possessed a superior goal difference of plus 25.

The Hoops picked up 28 out of a possible 30 points when the Premiership resumed this year – their only hiccup coming in the 2-2 draw with Livingston in West Lothian – while Gerrard’s team lurched from one disaster to another.

They lost to Hearts, Kilmarnock and Hamilton Accies and drew with Aberdeen and St Johnstone as they waved farewell to their remote chances of halting the Parkhead juggernaut.

To add to the Govan gloom, they crashed out of the Scottish Cup, beaten by rock-bottom Edinburgh outfit at Tynecastle.

Hoops hero Sutton, speaking to the Daily Record podcast, said: “The bottom line is, if I was a player and Rangers were 13 points clear at this time, you’d just have to accept it.

“They’ve made a rip-roaring a**e of things since the turn of the year, that’s the bottom line.

“They only have themselves to blame. They can look around, point fingers and say: ‘Well, it’s the SPFL’s fault’.

“But Neil Doncaster didn’t switch off from a corner. Neil Doncaster didn’t miss chance after chance. Neil Doncaster didn’t defend badly.

“It’s more about problems on the pitch and they’re trying to apportion blame elsewhere.

“I’m not sticking up for the SPFL at all here, but the bottom line is would there be this whole hurrah if Rangers were 13 points clear at the top?

“We know the answer, let’s not kid ourselves.”