Celtic and Rangers bosses in disagreement
Debate still rages after Sunday’s game
It is no surprise to see that Tony Mowbray and Walter Smith have a difference of opinion about Steven Conroy and his handling of the big clash at Celtic Park.
There were two major controversies in the game, the second of which was the decision to only book Kyle Lafferty for his challenge on Andreas Hinkel.
Tony Mowbray’s initial reaction was to turn away in horror but this wasn’t approved by many Celtic fans. A number of the messageboard’s had posters angry that Mowbray wasn’t out haranguing the referee and encouraging Conroy to send the player off.
It is noticeable that Celtic players don’t seem to harass the referees in the manner of some opponents, which perhaps make it easier for referees to dish out a yellow when a red would have been justified in the eyes of a lot of observers.
This timidness is a large factor in what a growing number of fans are considering a weakness in the armoury of Tony Mowbray and his Celtic team.
The manager, after viewing the footage and giving himself a few days to let the matter settle, had this to say;
"I cringed at the time, and when I saw it back, my reaction was still the same.”
"I talked last week about protecting players like Aiden McGeady, but my point was really about officials having total concentration on the game.”
"Officials have to get big decisions right - especially when they are potentially game-changing decisions.”
"I am the last person who wants players sent off but, again, when the referee looks at that re-run, he will think he didn't get it quite right.”
Surprisingly for a Celtic Rangers game, the media seemed to be in agreement that the referee got this call wrong.
However, unsurprisingly, Rangers players and officials don’t agree and one man who is never shy of commenting on referees made sure he was quick to praise Stephen Conroy.
"I've seen the incident since the game and Kyle's was a forward's challenge,"
"This tackle seems to have attracted a lot of attention when a lot of others seem to have been ignored."
"Everyone keeps saying the referee should have acted but the referee did act.
"He deemed it a yellow card offence and that was it."
It would be interesting to find out what tackles Walter Smith meant as there were no other challenges quite as bad as Lafferty’s, although there were one or two ‘forwards challenges’ in the game.
To give Smith his due, he did criticise Kyle Lafferty after his dive to get Charlie Mulgrew sent off and no doubt the manager fears that his player may be in line for a backlash from referees quite soon.
With Celtic’s game on Saturday postponed and Rangers trip to Hamilton on Sunday in doubt, the fall-out from the Celtic Rangers game may linger on for a little while longer.
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To be honest dont understand Celtic fans expecting Tony Mobray to be going crazy on the touchline @ ref as if that makes you a better manager then again some supporters are not happy unless they are moaning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never seen anybody moan at Referees as much as John Hartson. What a load of crap Celtic don’t get at Officials.
erm walter smith actually was talking about tackles in other games please get your facts straight before writng crap
Wilber, it was a reference to the current Celtic side who have taken a leaf out of their managers book.
Lets face it, no one could say with a straight face that a team with players like Neil Lennon, Alan Thompson, Chris Sutton, Paul Lambert or John Hartson never pressured referees. That spark and aggression is something that is definitely lacking in the current Celtic side.
Well Truebue (should that be Trueblue?), you look at the context of Walter’s quotes (sandwiched directly between two direct references to Sunday’s game) and it appears to be referring to Sunday’s game.
No one will deny there have been a few meaty challenges by Celtic players on Rangers players at Celtic Park over the past few years.
Jan Venegoor of Hesselink and Barry Robson certainly put themselves about the games that Celtic won near the end of Strachan’s three in a row season without seeing a red card, so if that is what Walter meant, he wouldnt be wrong.
However, if you were to consider Lafferty’s challenges to the red cards that Alan Thompson received at Ibrox, you would have to say that the Northern Irish international should have walked.
Put themselves about? You’ve got to be joking.
If you think Lafferty’s was anything like Thompson’s you’re very wrong. Thompson looked more like Bruce Lee than a footballer when he done that.
Thompson had three sending offs at Ibrox.
the first one, in a 5-1 win for Rangers, he can have no complaints about, two deserved bookings.
The second one, in a 2-0 win for Rangers was when Peter Lovenkrands dived but Thompson was stupid enough to give Lovenkrands the opportunity (Thompson still acted in an aggressive manner)
The third one, in a 3-1 win for Rangers was for a late sliding challenge on Nacho Novo. It is fair to say Rangers fan’s will say that Thompson’s tackle was worse than Lafferty’s, other observers may see it as both players coming in late and hard.
Don’t you just love the point scoring between Celtic and Rangers fans?
Truebue, to be fair to you, we have just seen a different website with the Walter Smith comments and they are in the order of referring to previous games at Celtic Park.
These are probably the challenges we referred to above but we take your point, however, the quotes we posted were taken at face value after viewing a number of sites.
Anyone remember Loovens assault on Edu last year? Was he booked? Sent off?
And as far as the Fortune ‘goal’ is concerned it was unfortunate for fortune that he fouled the goalkeeper with his flailing arm.
Hi Jack, thanks for that.
The ref missed Glen Loovens ‘assault’ on Edu but it was rightly picked up by the video review panel and the player was subsequently suspended.
Not a great bonus for Rangers who could have played against ten men in that match but at least the player was punished in the end.
How long until we get the Celtic fans on mentioning the ‘assaults’ on Celtic players which went unpunished by the ref OR the video panel in Celtic’s 2-1 defeat at Ibrox earlier this season.
As for the Fortune goal, its been discussed more than enough on this site and to be fair, there was no chance of getting an agreement about it.
EDIT – Thanks Top of the League but if you don’t mind, we’ll try to keep that sort of chat off the site.
We’re all for encouraging “the chat” but that is only going to cause some trouble…
Let me first state that Lafferty was reckless and irresponsible in his challenge, he could have left his team down to 10 men and probably sealed a defeat there and then. The referee seen the challenge from his viewpoint and deemed it yellow, contributing factors to this were the reaction of Hinkel (no histirionics) and his fellow Celtic team-mates leaving the referee to make his decision. For those comparing it with Loovens and McDonalds retrospective punishments, am I not correct in stating that both previous incidents hadn’t been noticed by the referee at the time and therefore referred to the video panel?
In any case, if I were a Celtic fan, I would be more interested in how my team failed to beat an understrength Rangers team missing their most influential players in Bougherra, Miller, Novo, Thomson, Beasley and Mendes. Celtic had a huge opportunity to close the gap but failed due to their usual problems of poor finishing and even poorer defending.
January is a huge month for both clubs and will determine the title no doubt. It’s beginning to look like Mendes will be sacrificed to enable a new deal for Boyd, with Davis’s form and Thomson to come back, it’s probably the one area that we can afford to lose a player from. Losing anymore will have a bad effect on the team and could see us losing our advantage very quickly.
Across the city Celtic have a huge quandry, the manager doesn’t appear to rate their top goalscorer and has a defence with more leaks than the hull of the Titanic after it’s clash with an iceberg. Wholsesale changes are required but the boards previous record in the January market, suggests that it might not be the signings that they are looking for.
Owen Coyle and others rejected the post for one reason and one reason only, transfer budget. With £3M spent on the management team, similar amount on Fortune and no Champions League money this year, Celtics Balance sheet is looking rather different for next year. the wage bill is high and to spend fortunes on more players in January and fail to make the Champions League group stages in 10/11, the board have already stated that they will not follow Murrays reckless spending that has left our club in such a perilous state.
The board have a big decision to make this month, that’s for sure.
A very balanced and observed post Lothian, thanks for that.
I think the majority of Celtic fans are taking nothing away from their own failings – Sunday’s game was an encapsulation of Celtic’s season…..but a few moans and groans are never far away at the things that are outwith their own control.
Which is fair enough as long as you work on your own shortcomings.
As for the video panel stuff, yes, as the ref witnessed it and acted, the current legislation provides no scope for the video panel…so it is definitely done and dusted (from a punishment perspective)
Can Rangers rely on Thomson coming back? With eaceh injury, it must become harder for the player to get back to his best.
Celtic have one or two big players they could ship out (and the demand should be there) to let them cover any financial shortfall…..but this would hasten the downsizing and make it harder to be at the top.
It is a big month for Peter Lawell and the PLC board, the patience and enduring loyalty of the fanbase may be at stake.
Rangers lead and high chance of retaining the title and securing CL money again may convince the moneymen that holding onto as many key men until the summer is a risk worth taking.
A million for Boyd now and lose the league….or lose him for nothing in the summer but after his goals have brought in the CL money?
Its all ifs and buts, Boyd could still stay and sign a new contract….Boyd could stay to summer and Rangers dont win the league
but both sides have a lot of weighing up to do this month. Both sides made calculated gambles last January, Rangers were the big winners, will the same happen this year?
“It would be interesting to find out what tackles Walter Smith meant as there were no other challenges quite as bad as Lafferty’s, although there were one or two ‘forwards challenges’ in the game.”
===
Smith wasn’t referring to this particular game. He was referring to previous old firm games over the past 2 or 3 years where there’s been flying elbows, kung fu kicks and straight leg tackled from Cletc players which have not generated the media frenzy Lafferty’s has.
For example..
http://i48.tinypic.com/291m0jk.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/2i6yqdy.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/160zk7l.jpg
Video clip..
http://i48.tinypic.com/2aklh21.jpg
This was already discussed and sorted out in the comments section Al but thanks for your post.
Yes, Celtic have got away with some high and hard challenges in recent years but as have Rangers.
A notable one came in the last Ibrox match when Kyle Lafferty put in a dangerous studded challenge on Zheng Zhi.
It may be best if we come to the agreement that both sides have got away with some rather questionable challenges in recent years…good luck with that idea though!