A forward's challenge or an own goal?

He's generally regarded as a sly old fox and master of the media but has Walter Smith scored an own goal by throwing fresh fuel onto the Kyle Lafferty controversy?

There are always talking, or typing, points thrown up after Celtic-Rangers matches but generally they linger on and die away after a few days as life moves on to the following weekends fixtures.

Most people had had their say and there wasn't a sane voice anywhere willing to defend Lafferty's violent attack on Andreas Hinkel.

A few people had suggested that Marco Fortune had fouled Allan McGregor at the disallowed Celtic goal but no one had been prepared to defend or justify Lafferty's actions until today.

Will Smith's comments force the SFA to recall their Review Panel out of hibernation or are they still scratching around to find guidelines for cases that require a second or third opinion?

After deciding to review incidents that happened to involve Celtic players in successive matches last May it's all gone kind of quiet on the Review front.

"I've seen the incident once since the game and Kyle's tackle was a forward's challenge, claimed the Rangers manager.

"Everyone keeps saying the referee should have acted but the referee did act. He deemed it a yellow card offence and that was it.

Less than a week ago a referee acted and gave Kenny Miller a red card, that was hardly 'it' as Rangers attempted to find some vague grounds to appeal against the referees decision.

For reasons best known to himself Smith has decided to further highlight the Lafferty incident and keep the controversy going for another day or two.

Looking at it rationally the Rangers manager should surely have kept quiet on the issue, let it run it's course and move on rather than attempt to excuse it under the 'forward's challenge' claim.

There are plenty of players at Celtic and Rangers who have suffered serious injuries when opponents have gone beyond what is generally acceptable in the cut and thrust of the game. Ian Durrant and John Kennedy were both spectators on Sunday.

Lafferty's 'forward's challenge' was of a similar nature to the incidents that put the career's of Durrant and Kennedy on hold; robbing Kennedy of his career and Durrant of two years football before returning at a lesser level.

I suspect most footballers watching the Lafferty-Hinkel incident either winced or were incensed, there is no place for that sort of challenge in the game.

The 'forward's challenge' summed up the mentality of Lafferty, he's in a bad place just now. Rangers supporters want to love him but can't, he contributes little to their team, he's playing out of position and worst of all he's picking up the sort of wages that would probably have Kris Boyd signing up onto a new ten year contract.

Throw in the atmosphere of a Celtic-Rangers game you have all the ingredients that led to the foul on Hinkel.

By reviving the incident and describing it as a 'forwards challenge' Smith is excusing Lafferty and setting a dangerous precedent.

Without doubt there will be some nasty borderline challenges put in on Rangers players before the season ends, being on the receiving end I doubt that Smith will shrug his shoulders and accept a yellow card as punishment then watch the same forward being involved in a goal scoring incident.

Saying nothing would have been the sensible option, adopting the Arsene Wenger method.

After the Charlie Mulgrew incident last season referees will naturally be suspicious of Lafferty

BBC video clip of incident