Nile Ranger has explained the celebration he broke out after scoring his side's third goal on Saturday.
The Southend forward found the net from the penalty spot on the stroke of half-time to put breathing space between the teams when the Shrimpers claimed a 4-2 victory at Fleetwood Town.
Ranger is never far from controversy, having recently served a prison sentence after admitting to an online banking fraud in which a woman lost in excess of £2,000, and the celebration that followed his first goal of the season prompted some raised eyebrows in the crowd.
https://twitter.com/PinophytaEd/status/911606952970432517
A day after having his electronic tag removed, Ranger celebrated by taking his right boot off and shooting it like a gun but his manager has clarified what the former Newcastle forward meant by the gesture.
"It was to do with fire in his belly and fire or bullets being in his boots," manager
Phil Brown said.
"It was nothing untoward and he’s probably been planning it for a couple of a months because he’s had a lot of time on his own to be thinking about what to do!"
The hosts' official Twitter account posted the below tweet, which has since been deleted, and Ranger has also taken to social media to clarify the celebration's meaning.
"To put things straight I wasn't shooting the crowd," Ranger wrote.
"I just have a lot of ammunition in the boots this season."
https://twitter.com/NilePowerRanger/status/911631190733533184
The 26-year-old spent his Saturday evening retweeting examples of other players using gun-simulation celebrations, suggesting that he is unfairly being singled out due to his criminal record.
Only last week, Ranger claimed that he'd been removed from the Fifa 18 video game because of his prison sentence. But he found little sympathy from supporters.
