The days of dubious decisions

“It looked like to me like he didn’t have one hand but almost two hands on it,” – Neil Lennon, Celtic Manager.

The headlines regarding outlandish decisions against our beloved Bhoys have become a continuous theme that stretch back to the dark ages. You would have thought that the putrid decision spinning ‘vinyl record’ sat on the SFA’s ‘Gramophone’ of truth would have seized up and at least started to play a fresh record of ‘Fairness’. This is not the case.

As my dear blogging compadre Mr LOTW has done the once over already, you will already be aware of the shambolic, ineptitude shown by the match referee Iain Brines in the second half of the match against St Johnstone.

This 2nd half madness took place in a 20 minute session of ‘You’ve been framed’, where Kayals leg was nearly snapped and one player decided it was time the NBA and the SPL got into bed together. I reckon Brines got his £250 worth tonight but he may have to give Michael “Oops I did it again” Duberry half of his winnings but that is if Mr Harry Hill decides it is worthy of his clip show of funnies. Brines could start his own mini-series after tonight: –

Welcome to Brines Balls-up

Brines Balls-up – 1 – Michael Duberry decides to go into a challenge with our favourite Israeli midfielder Beram Kayal.

He (Duberry) goes into the challenge viciously as if he was a man possessed, his subsequent leading leg goes over the ball and into the lower region of Kayals leg possibly on the bottom of his shin / ankle with only Duberrys trailing leg getting some of the ball. Technically the tackle was dangerous and Mr Kayal was lucky to come out of it walking in my view.

Brines view – No foul, no card, no free kick.

Brines Balls-up – 2  –Personally I thought the first real decision Brines should have made was shocking, but that was just the warm up for his main event of the evening. I for one am not sure if he wanted to make the headlines of the news outlets but for what happened surely he will be reminded of for a few years to come.

With the Kayal incident still fresh in our minds, the ball went into the St Johnstone box and it was popped out to Duberry on the left side of the box. He went to turn away from his goal to the corner flag on his left, with Sammy on his shoulder, Duberry feels a brush of Sammys hand and decides to drop forwards as if it was in slow motion and lands with his arm on the ball. No whistle was blown for a free kick.

Duberry thinking it was a freekick decides as he is getting up to place the ball slowly with his right hand, so obviously that everybody watching, the crowd, the linesman, the ballboys, the St Johnstone players and the Celtic players saw it happen. He then stands up expecting something to happen then he clears the ball with the Celtic players screaming for a penalty, obviously so as it was unbelievably blatant. The rules state that if a ‘live’ ball is handled by any other person than the goalkeeper in the area a penalty is given.

In my view it was a stonewall penalty, Duberry will be embaressed by this and even more so the referee. This is again proof of the terrible officiating we have come face to face with this season.

Brines view – No penalty, no handball, no decision made, referee waves off Celtic protests and the match carries on.

I believe Brines should hold his hands up and comment on the decision. He is a very lucky man that St Johnstone did not score a leveller as the place would have erupted and whole hell would have opened up.

If St Johnstone had levelled Brines could have put a hideous dent in Celtics chase for the title.

Our gaffer Neil Lennon round off his interview with the BBC by saying: –

“It just seemed to be slow motion, I don’t know if he was going to give a free-kick against and, in the end, he didn’t do anything.

“For me, it is a clear-cut penalty. It looked to me like Michael had stopped the ball with his hand clearly.

“If Iain thought it was a foul by Georgios, he should have given the free-kick.”

All in all the match was won by a very good Celtic move and a goal by Mr Kayal, but all the talk will be about the incident.

In essence of the incident I have decided to dedicate a music video to Michael Duberry, he took this literally : –

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Direkt

As always Celts your views are always welcome. . .