The yellow card shown to Aasgaard didn’t just go in the notebook and get forgotten about. It changed his entire approach, and in Scotland, that can be the difference between doing your job properly and spending the rest of the game second-guessing every tackle.

When a booking makes you hesitate

You could see it in real time. Once Aasgaard was on a yellow, every 50-50 became a risk assessment. The big moment, from a Rangers point of view, is him pulling out of the challenge on Yang for the first goal because the last thing he could do was dive in and get caught. A second booking in that situation and you’re down to 10, and we all know how brutal that is in an Old Firm swing.

And it wasn’t a one-off either. When a player’s been booked early, they start defending with their hands behind their back, jockeying when they really want to engage, and giving that extra yard because they’ve got the ref in their head. It’s not always a lack of effort. Sometimes it’s fear of a daft red changing the whole day.

Consistency in refereeing matters

Now, to be fair, you can argue the original yellow was deserved. I’m not even sure I’d fight that too hard. But the frustration comes from the comparison. When Celtic players make similar or identical challenges and it’s not even a foul, never mind a booking, it feeds the feeling of two different standards in the same match.

That’s where supporters lose it, because it’s not about wanting “soft” decisions. It’s about consistency. If you’re setting the tone as bookable, then it has to be bookable both ways. Otherwise you’re basically telling one team they can go full contact and the other team has to tiptoe.

Is there a player there or not?

The wider point is Aasgaard himself. I don’t buy the idea he’s some hopeless footballer. He’s inconsistent, aye, and at times he can look lazy. But there’s a difference between a player having patchy concentration and a player having no ability. In my eyes there’s clearly something there, even if it comes and goes too often.

The question is whether his style suits Scottish football, where games are scrappy, transitions are fast, and you get punished for switching off for even a second. If he can’t bring it regularly, then moving him on in January might be the sensible option. Not because he’s useless, but because his value only drops if he’s out the team or drifting through matches.

Written by DoTheBouncy: 5 January 2026

Tags: spfl tactics