Rangers keeper hits out at ‘idiot’ who racially abused Scott Sinclair

Wes Foderingham has stressed the “one idiot” who racially abused Celtic’s Scott Sinclair is not representative of the Rangers support.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, a 28-year-old man from Girvan, Ayrshire, admitted making racial gestures at Ibrox after Sinclair scored an early penalty in the Ladbrokes Premiership encounter on April 29 which Celtic won 5-1. The man is now banned from attending future games.

Gers goalkeeper Foderingham is an ambassador for Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion organisation, and reprised that role at Ibrox, where he helped deliver an anti-discrimination workshop to local schoolchildren from St Saviour’s Primary School.

Asked about the Sinclair incident afterwards, the 26-year-old said: “I heard about it after the game on social media and it was disappointing. No one wants to see that in football, especially at a club I represent.

“It is a minority. It is one or two who spoiled the whole atmosphere for fans who come and watch Rangers and Celtic week in and week out and show their support.

“Of course, it is difficult when one idiot comes and starts to behave like that.

“The only thing you can do is deal with it case by case and the club has dealt with it accordingly.

“The Rangers fans have been fantastic. All season and since I joined the club they have been superb.

“The majority of the Rangers fans do not condone what happened.

“The club have put a statement out and they have dealt with it accordingly.

“I haven’t (spoken to Sinclair), I can understand that he is probably upset and frustrated, but hopefully he will be all right.”

Foderingham believes the criticism aimed at Rangers’ celebrations following their stoppage-time win against Partick Thistle at Firhill on Sunday are unfair.

Much was made of the wild scenes in the technical area and among the fans, some of whom jumped over the perimeter wall, after striker Joe Garner headed in for a 2-1 victory following back-to-back defeats by Old Firm rivals Celtic.

However, the former Swindon player said: “I would celebrate beating East Kilbride because I enjoy winning football matches, the Rangers fans enjoy winning football matches and the players enjoy winning football matches.

“Regardless of the opposition I would celebrate the same way.

“It was a massive relief. It is no secret that we didn’t deserve to win that game.

“We didn’t play well enough. Partick Thistle did really well, they have been outstanding against us in all the games we have played so it was relief to get the three points.”

Foderingham admitted the Gers players are still getting used to new manager Pedro Caixinha’s methods since he took over from Mark Warburton, but knows that results are as important as ever.

He said: “It is a different style of play. He is an intensive, aggressive type of manager who wants his sides to play as such and it will take time for the boys to adjust.

“We are doing that at the moment and hopefully we can get a good pre-season under our belts and have a good go at it next season.

“We are all going to be judged on winning football matches and that is never going to change and until we start winning football matches on a regular basis those question marks are not going to go away.

“So what we need to do is work together as a squad, as a management, as a club and get back to winning football matches.”