I've taken my time to measure this offering, can be too easy to become over-emotional in the aftermath of a disappointment.
Remove the obvious need to question our game management, tactical shape and in-match changes etc (will cover this later) but for this thread I want to focus on the "choices" made by officials.
I will not go down the "cheat" route, as it's emotional and one size does not fit all, and I still do not believe that an official pre-meditates a bias pre-match.
However, I wish to introduce the concept of "Conscious failure" to apply the laws of the game.
In the case of John Beaton, a man so chastised and hounded after Rangers deserved to win a match, there is no doubt in my mind that "in the moment" he on several occasions consciously failed to apply the laws of the game, for fear of backlash.
You can almost see it in his body-language, when booking Morelos for diving, and completely ignoring Dicker doing the same earlier in the match. He was well aware that failure to apply the law of the game to Dicker would not result in any fall-out, but knew fine well the moon-howling that would arise if he did not take action against Morelos for the same crime.
The exact same can be said for the penalty claim and disallowed goal for identical pushes, Beaton was well aware of the exposure and fate that would behold him should he have awarded Rangers a late penalty at 1-1. (See Aberdeen away)
These have been "conscious and in the moment" decisions designed to take the path of least resistance, and are fatal in matches like last night and Aberdeen away. It's easy to say, "aye, but we shouldn't have to rely on officials making the rights calls, or we should be out of site etc.)
Football is a low-scoring Sport and marginal decisions are key in deciding the outcomes of matches. With the shite pitch, opposition strengths etc, Rangers are unlikely to win matches like last night 3 or 4-0, and ended up losing a match we scored first in to the only two shots Kilmarnock had on target.
As much as the stance taken by Gerard is extremely admirable, sporting and introspective, it will kill any future title hopes stone dead, as the marginals will always go against us. The manky mob are reaping their years of sowing grievances.
We will always pay the price for failing to call-out this "conscious incompetence" and it will only get worse.