Ibrox side deserve victory

Like many Celtic V Rangers games that have been hyped to an inch of their life, it failed to stand up as a football spectacle but for the winning team, that hardly matters. Rangers fans will be celebrating long into the night…and the week ahead…and with 9 wins out of 9 in the SPL, who can blame them?

Rangers could have been celebrating early when Steven Whittaker hit the post but after two early and deserved bookings for Stokes from Celtic and McCulloch from Rangers, there wasn’t much going on in the opening stages.

Celtic lost captain Shaun Maloney early on, being replaced by Mexican Efrain Juarez but both sides were sounding each other out. As football contests go, it was fairly non-eventful.

The match sparked to life when McCulloch halted a Celtic break by impeding Samaras, which looked like a yellow card. If McCulloch hadn’t been booked early on, it is fair to say that that a yellow would have followed but with the focus on Willie Collum, there was no chance he would make such a decision. McCulloch stayed on and Celtic wasted the free-kick opportunity.

That said, the side in green and white grabbed a lead before half-time when a corner broke to Gary Hooper in space. The striker blasted the ball home and ensured the home side had a 1-0 lead at half-time….even if few would have said any team deserved to be in the lead.

Celtic needed to hold that lead for a while but the shambolic Hoops defence allowed Rangers back into the game almost instantaneously in the second half. Glen Loovens was unfortunate in bundling the ball behind Foster to draw Rangers level but things went from bad to worse for the Celtic backline.

Some suicidal defending from Celtic, almost as part and parcel of these games as the bigotry from certain elements of the crowd, gave Rangers the opportunity to take the lead as Kenny Miller fired home. The Rangers end of Celtic Park went mad as per usual for this season; the blues were celebrating reversing a deficit.

At this point, Celtic looked dead and buried and unable to come back into the match but it has to be said they were very harshly treated with the penalty kick for Rangers third. Broadfoot clearly made the most of a non challenge from Majstorovic and even though Willie Collum appeared to not see the challenge, he pointed to the spot. And as all of Scottish football knows, when the ref points to the spot, he isn’t going to change his decision and award anything else….

Kenny Miller slammed the ball home and the three points were in the bag for Rangers. After this, Celtic huffed and puffed but looked poor and Rangers played very confidently in restricting their city rivals.

So, Celtic have now lost, meaning Rangers are out on their own at the top of the SPL and with 9 wins in a row, are deservedly out on their own in the SPL. There is a long way to go in the SPL but with an away victory under their belt, Rangers will be extremely confident about edging out their Glasgow rivals.

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Men in black mouthpiece moans again

Stuart Dougal obviously hasn’t been getting enough press and publicity of late. Writing a column for the Daily Record allows him to stand amongst the “greats” of the Scottish game like Mark Hately and Billy Brown but with circulation figures of the newspaper falling, is it enough to feed his ego?

There’s a recession on but Mr Dougall manages to supplement a big wage from a big audit company whilst still getting his share of the Scottish football spotlight. His column for the Daily Record sees him acting as the unofficial spokesman for referees, sticking up for them at every point but being allowed to dish out the personal attacks that an official representative of the SFA would not be able to dole out.

Given that Dougal is sticking up for an organisation that doesn’t allow any questioning of their decisions or enters into debate about their mistakes, its pretty unfair. The latest Dougal broadside unsurprisingly puts the SFA party line at the front as usual:

“Referees are close to calling for a day of industrial action. If people are fed up with the decision-making of our referees, maybe they should face a Saturday afternoon without any decisions being made at all.

“I know the strength of feeling and solidarity that exists on this issue and if there is a belief the endorsement of a day of action is the only way to get their point across, it will be taken.

“It has already been discussed by senior members of the refereeing movement if unhelpful comments from managers such as Gannon continue. This warning should be taken seriously.”

That sounds like a threat and the sort of chat that would result in an immediate yellow card from a referee. The only response to Dougal would be “boo hoo Stuart, boo hoo”

Talk of people being fed up and then warning them of the consequences is the wrong tact to take and not conducive to resolving an issue. People are possibly fed up at paying a lot of money only to have their football ruined by bad decisions from the ref.

Ask Celtic fans who twice this season have went away from home and been denied at least two stone-wall penalty kicks (although the Hoops would probably have missed them).

Ask Rangers fans who felt they were denied a penalty in their recent 1-0 defeat at Pittodrie.

Ask Hearts fans who saw Michael Stewart sent off which was later rescinded and were denied a clear cut penalty in injury time at Hamilton which may have rescued a point.

Ask Motherwell and Dundee United fans what they felt of the refereeing performance in their 2-2 draw.

Ask any fan in the SPL and you will be given a lengthy list of errors and mistakes that have ruined an expensive Saturday or Sunday out.

Managers can get sacked because of refereeing decisions. Players can lose out on win bonuses. Fans can feel as though they are cheated out of their hard earned money by attention seeking diva’s intent on being noticed.

Whatever Stuart Dougal feels about the treatment of referees, everybody else in football can say the exact same. When the outcome of a match depends on so many variable factors, it is inevitable that frustration will creep in when things go against your team.

It is very difficult for referees, no one will deny that.

With increased TV coverage, multiple camera angles, the amount of money at stake and lets be honest, society becoming an angrier and tenser place, every decision is now questioned in great depth.

It is the exact same for players though. The Scottish media will pillory players and managers for mistake but will still give refs an easy ride, especially compared to their English equivalent which will criticise refs when it matters. If the SFA want to improve matters, a bit of humility and transparency would go the right way.

Refs may argue that they need to be authoritative to keep players in line but the us and them attitude shown by the men in black (red /yellow depending on their outfit) is only helping to create a bigger divide in Scottish football.

If the SFA are genuine about improving the relationship, gagging this media puppet may be a good way to go about it.

Should retired refs be so vocal about the profession?

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Wonder goal settles Fir Park thriller

Scottish football has its critics but the Motherwell v Celtic match had it all. Great goals, a missed penalty, teams coming from behind, terrible defending and awful refereeing. This is what makes Scottish football so exciting.

It may not always be technically excellent but when you have a goal like this, you can only sit back and marvel.

Marc Antoine Fortune had barely dirtied his boots after coming on as a sub but he fairly put his right foot behind the ball to send it soaring beyond John Ruddy.

Things started well for Celtic, the forward play was looking inventive and they took a deserved lead when Samaras fired the ball home after neat play. At this stage, it was looking as though the Hoops would progress but all credit to Motherwell, they came back strongly.

The passing and movement of Motherwell was effective and enjoyable to watch, with the Steelmen’s midfield able to find space at will.

Depending on your viewpoint, the two Motherwell goals were well worked or poorly defended. Artur Boruc and Gary Caldwell were culpable as Lukas Jutkiewicz back-heeled an equaliser. Worse was to follow for the Glasgow side as Glen Loovens and Andreas Hinkel were posted missing as Mark Reynolds finished cooly on the stroke of half-time.

The home fans were in jubilant mood at half-time, celebrating early with their usual repertoire of “party” songs when Celtic come to visit but within 7 minutes of the second half, Celtic were back on level terms.

There had already been a period of dominance when McGeady was fed in by Samaras and the Irish internationalist cut inside and curled a superb strike into the far corner of Ruddy’s net.

Celtic then had a period of exhilarating play, all funnelling through McGeady but wasteful finishing and good goalkeeping kept the score at 2-2. Ruddy then pulled off an excellent stop when Barry Robson missed a penalty. Even Charlie Richmond had no option but to point to the spot when Samaras was hauled down in the act of shooting.

This miss saw Celtic’s head drop and the game was looking as though it could go either. Then Tony Mowbray made the substitution that earned the Hoops all three points and saw them secure at the top of the table.

There has been a lot of talk about referees and this game was no different. Referee Charlie Richmond couldn’t help but get himself some attention by a shocking decision to blow full-time when Fortune was running through on goal. If it was Motherwell who were breaking in that situation with the scoreline as it was, Richmond would not have blown for time in that matter.

Yes, a penalty for Celtic isn’t a guarantee of any success but that doesn’t mean it is right for a referee to deny them two other stonewall penalties. It is funny how Jim Gannon didn’t make any post match remarks about the referee but Celtic fans don’t need to rally too hard about the referees as their team did just enough.

All in all though, it was a shot of good Fortune that decided the match in Celtic’s favour.

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Referees are in a no win situation but they took centre stage today.

With all six games on the Saturday, the SPL action for the week has already been concluded and it is no surprise to see there have been a number of controversial moments.

Sadly, managers are yet again coming out and making the referees the centre of attention of their post match discussion.
Mark McGhee was naturally delighted at a 1-0 home victory over Rangers where his team had to play for half an hour with 10 men.

Mark Kerr picked up two bookings in the space of ten minutes, with many observers feeling the player was hard done by.

It is difficult for a referee to call everything right but when Aberdeen have received a lot of red cards in recent weeks, the club will naturally believe things are conspiring against them. Considering Rangers were the opposition, it is easy to see why the Red Army would think Craig Thomson was doing his best to bring the champions back into the match.

Thankfully for McGhee, his team held on.

A strange occurrence happened at Celtic Park, not the home side getting a penalty but a player being sent off and then ushered back onto the pitch.

A rather blatant hand-ball by Chris Innes was worthy of at least a booking and it was no shock to see Mike Conroy book the defender. The flash of yellow was followed by a red and the player walked off in disbelief.

His St Mirren team mates quickly gathered around the ref to inform him that Innes had not been booked previously and that mistaken identity had taken place. Eventually, Innes was eventually recalled to the field where the referee apologised.

Innes seemed to respond in jest but there was definitely an edge of malice in the playful tap on the head he admonished to the referee.

Innes’s boss, Gus McPherson, had this to say:

“Mr Conroy thought Chris Innes had previously been booked. It wasn’t until I had seen a couple of players complain that I realised that it was Lee Mair that had got booked earlier.”

However, it was the pulsating 2-2 draw between Motherwell and Dundee United which will gather most of the column inches for the refereeing performance.

Dundee United were reduced to 9 men but both managers focused on the performance of the referee as opposed to their own players efforts in the Fir Park clash.

Motherwell boss Jim Gannon was fairly succinct in his criticism of Alan Muir;

“I think we’ve always got a danger when a referee doesn’t know a foul. It’s a concern for the league. The standard of refereeing is bringing the game into disrepute.”

Craig Levein, as you would expect from a man who had two players sent off, was even more critical:

“I don’t know how much I can say without getting myself in trouble. I thought it was a very poor performance from the referee.”
“He continually got decisions wrong; we had two players sent off who shouldn’t have been.”
“We had a player still on the pitch who should’ve been sent off.”
“I’ve been in football for the majority of my life and recognise a booking and sending off.”
“I think the referee was far too hasty and that was evident in the decisions he made.”

When opposition managers agree on the refereeing decisions, for and against their team, you really get the feeling that it was a bad day at the office for the refs in the SPL.

Maybe next week they’ll get it right?

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