That was an enjoyable afternoon if you like your football primitive and bloodthursty. There are those that say it’s what makes the games on these shores ‘special’. I say games like today are the reason we are being left behind in skill and technique by those who value the finer things more highly.
Ability leveler tackles and lenient officiating are the reason the game in this country is stuck in the dark ages. For McCall’s Murderwell to be ‘praised’ today instead of being held up as ‘all that is wrong about our game’ is testament to a broken home.
It’s like praising a wife beater because he only does it when he drinks.
If only McCall’s team showed the same ‘attitude’ and ‘commitment’ when playing our friends across the city.
Anyway, here’s the summary and ratings.
The Summary
The good willed out
Lee Harvey Oswald wouldn’t even have been booked had he been wearing a Motherwell top today. Plan A was to kick Forrest off the pitch. Plan B – refer to Plan A. Good won the day for once.
I thought Motherwell’s tactics where disgusting. Thugery is the best way to describe how they played and the ref was an absolute disgrace.
We could have ended up with a serious injury today and that ref stood by and watched it happen then he had the nerve to book Stokes for mouthing off after turning a blind eye to a game full of assaults.
Brilliantly written. You are exactly right about why the Scottish game is in the grubber. The retards in power are too intent on keeping their establishment safe and singling out our club that they are 100% responsible for the demise of Scotyish football. Keeping the goats happy and the trouser legs up is more n their agenda than saving the Scottish game.
Have to agree LotW, some of the tackles in the first half were appalling, reminded me and no doubt everyone else of the 2-0 game there last season where we were booted off the park by Laslie, Jennings, and Forbes. How Laslie and Jennings escaped earlier bookings in the game today was laughable. Richmond turned a blind eye to almost everything, Motherwell could easily have had 3 red cards today not 1. BBC highlights were a joke too, ignoring all of the tackles bar the one they could not ignore. Top that off with Craig Patterson pining for the old offside rule to be brought back, why, so Gary Hooper would be offside….
Below is the number of fouls committed per yellow card received in the SPL so far this season. On average a yellow card is recieved every 6.79 fouls, however one club is getting penalised much less than all the others.
1 – Celtic – 13.00 fouls per booking
2 – Dundee Utd – 7.94 fouls per booking
3 – Rangers – 7.28 fouls per booking
4 – Aberdeen – 6.54 fouls per booking
5 – Motherwell – 6.44 fouls per booking
6 – Inverness CT – 6.21 fouls per booking
7 – Dunfermline – 6.05 fouls per booking
8 – Kilmarnock – 5.95 fouls per booking
9 – Hibs – 5.86 fouls per booking
10 – Hearts – 5.70 fouls per booking
11 – St Mirren – 5.29 fouls per booking
12 – St Johnstone – 5.17 fouls per booking
oh dear…kinda makes a mockery of THAT argument eh? And wasnt Dr Reid a part of the establishment that you claim to hold in such contempt?…Offended by everything – embarrassed by nothing right enough…hypocrisy and delusion reigns as ever…
PS I don’t expect this post to remain…thats if it ever gets that far…
And for the record i’m a Dundee United supporter who just happens to think that the ugly sisters are everything thats wrong with our game.
What a well reasearched post pity it misses the point completely. I wasn’t going on about bookings I was going on about a noticeable tactic, which is common place when we visit that midden.
Damn lies and stats eh? Do they factor in the severity of the challenges? Probably not.
Could it be that a certain teams fouls are deemed to be more for ‘minor infringements’ and not yellow card offences!
Your stats dont take into consideration what the fouls and bookings were given for. If you foul someone in a 50-50 tussle for the ball, you get a foul against you, but you dont get booked. However, if you half someone in two or clatter into someone from behind, you get a foul against you, and you also get booked.
Therefore, another interpretation of your stats could be that St. Johnstone commit the most dirty, dangerous, bookable fouls and Celtic commit the least- something that backs up Winner’s argument.
It would also be interesting to find out how many bookable fouls are committed against Celtic.
wholeheartedly agree!! its good tae hump murderwell at home in their middin..they were awful in the tackle and charlie richmond should surely be scrutinized for his appalling handling of the game? higdon and lasley should also have sen red..wee forest was brutalized in the first half…but we played hard and won..And it is strange how ‘the well’ always fail to perform against HER MAJESTIES REVENUE EVADERS
C’MON THE HOOPS!!
I couldn’t agree more about or “special” way of playing football. The lack of skill or talent among most Scottish players is just embarrassing now. We must be the only country in the world where you can still get a professional game just because your a clugger.
From a Celtic point of view, I’m worried about what’s going to happen when the pitches start to cut-up and flood. That’s another great leveler.
We played most of the game yesterday: two wingers and then three center-forwards on the pitch. But I dont think that’s never going to work in january, with five opposition midfielders kicking the crap out of our two, on a mucky, heavy pitch. Therefore, we need to find a way of being more competitive in the midfield, at least until we get on top in games.
The refs are never going to protect our players either, so we need a few players that can do it themselves.
The last two team selections have been mainly due to lack of options. A more robust and solid midfield will be forthcoming once Quincy does his work.
I hope your right, but I’m not so sure. We threw away a lot of points last year playing with a weak midfield. We did this even when we had enough players available, and even when we where away from home on crappy pitches.
I wont give examples, because we all know the games.
Aye, don’t depress us by listing the horrors.
I relied on Radio Scotland but did notice comments on CQN that the ref was allowing over robust play. The radio commentator did remark that Celtic players were going down easily and Samaras was described as a `fairy`. Later I saw the BBC highlights which showed no evidence of this robustness. 🙂
Time for a international interruption.
The lack of ‘highlights’ on the Beeb has been mentioned to me this morning. What’s their agenda? Don’t want to upset their pundits (Craigan and McCall)? Plus I hear that they disagreed with the red card and only revoked their position when Mrs Doubtfire admitted it was a red.
Good article LOTW…spot on with your observations.
The game in this country is dire….yesterday’s kicking performance from Murderwell was a disgrace.
But surely Celtic have to officially query the MIB’s handling of the game..?? It was shocking to say the least…and as an earlier post said….
he books Anthony Stokes for mouthing…?? total joke….The main point , however, is correct….
football takes second place on occasion in this bigoted wee country…hammer throwers are King…
just ask…Maribor…or Malmo.
Did you see Maribor’s and Malmo’s results in the Zooropa League>? Not exactly tearing up trees are they. 🙂