David Gray backs penalty decision in Hibs' 2-1 victory over Rangers

David Gray did not try to dodge the flashpoint. He walked into the Ibrox press room with a 2-1 win in his pocket and a penalty storm swirling around him, and backed the decision that turned the afternoon on its head.

Hibernian’s head coach had just watched his side claim a famous victory in Glasgow, Josh Campbell burying a first-half spot-kick before Callum Wright’s stoppage-time solo strike stunned Rangers. Between those two moments, Jordan Obita’s late own goal had cranked the noise levels and convinced the home crowd a comeback winner was coming.

Instead, it was Hibs who finished with the punch that mattered.

The argument started much earlier. Vanja Dragojević was penalised in the first half for dragging down Jason Kerr at a corner, a decision that survived a lengthy VAR check and left Ibrox raging. For Gray, though, the technology only highlighted what officials had warned managers about weeks ago.

“Straight away the referees have come in and spoke to us about it,” he said, referencing recent briefings on grappling at set-plays. Corners now come with a health warning: stop wrestling, or risk giving away penalties.

Gray admitted that, in real time, he barely registered the incident. The game had broken the other way, the moment seemed to have gone, and thoughts moved on. Not everyone was so relaxed.

“At the time I didn't think much of it and my goalie coach said straight away it could be a penalty,” Gray revealed. The move continued, play flowed, and then came the call in the referee’s ear. The breakaway was scrubbed. VAR wanted a look.

The replay left little room for interpretation in Gray’s eyes. Kerr set himself to attack the ball, Dragojević focused on the man, not the delivery, and the contact dragged the Hibs defender away from the flight of the cross.

“Seeing it back now I think the officials and VAR have no option but to give it,” Gray said. “He's put them in a position where they have to give it. He's not looking at the ball, he's impeding the player that's trying to head the ball and the ball lands in that area.”

That last detail matters. The ball dropped exactly where Kerr had tried to go. The infringement wasn’t off the play, it was at the heart of it.

For Gray, that sealed the argument.

“It's left the referee no choice but to give the penalty and I think it's the right decision.”

Campbell did the rest from the spot, setting the tone for a Hibs performance that refused to wilt even when Obita’s own goal, with around five minutes left, turned Ibrox into a cauldron. Rangers sensed a winner. The stadium did too.

Hibs didn’t blink. They waited, they broke, and Wright’s stoppage-time run and finish silenced the place and delivered three points that will echo far beyond a single refereeing call.