Derek Lyle red card was wrong, says Mark Warburton

Derek Lyle is dismissed by referee Bobby Madden

Rangers manager Mark Warburton says the decision to send off Queen of the South striker Derek Lyle during the Ibrox side's 5-1 win was "very, very harsh".

Bobby Madden showed Lyle a straight red for pushing his head into defender Rob Kiernan while Rangers led 1-0.

"I've got to say, five yards away from me, that's not a red card, in my honest opinion," Warburton told BBC Scotland.

"It's a competitive game, the guys are charged up, there was nothing I saw that warranted a red card."

Rangers were leading thanks to a well-worked Andy Halliday goal when, shortly after half-time, striker Lyle and centre-back Kiernan went head to head after a heavy tackle on Rangers defender James Tavernier.

Tempers frayed as the visitors added to their lead, twice from the penalty spot, with referee Bobby Madden issuing a total of eight yellow cards.

"It started before then, the tackle on Tavernier, and Rob came over and did the right thing," said Warburton.

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"He's looking after his teammates, he didn't do anything inappropriate, and the guy (Lyle) responded. Maybe a yellow card at worse.

"Then we've got a number of yellow cards being flashed around, and I took Tavernier off because I'm concerned on this surface, and that type of atmosphere with free kicks left, right and centre - it wasn't a healthy environment in that respect."

Warburton, who has now led Rangers to victory in all eight of his competitive matches since taking the helm at Ibrox this summer, was delighted with the result.

"We had no doubts about the threat they were going to pose this afternoon," he stated. "But to impose ourselves, lead at half-time and then in the second half deal with circumstances, (it was) a very pleasing performance.

"I thought we moved the ball well, we created chances and we could have had one or two more, in all honesty."

Queens counterpart James Fowler felt sending Lyle off was not warranted, after fourth official Crawford Allan, who spotted the clash, advised Madden to dismiss the striker.

"It's two players coming together. I think if both get yellows for being aggressive, I don't think there's any complaints, and we move on and we've still got 11 men," he said.

"He (Allan) said he saw aggressive behaviour. I asked him if it was just from one party, and he said yes, because there wasn't even a yellow card for the Rangers player, which is a strange one.

"If it had been two yellows for both players you take that on the chin and move on."