Four years ago this month, Celtic went to Ibrox to win the title.
What followed was one of the most disreputable and despicable refereeing performances I have ever seen.
Celtic conceded a tenth minute goal. Eighteen minutes later we lost Cha Du-Ri to a diabolical red card. Lennon was furious. He complained bitterly. He continued to remonstrate with the ref at half time, and didn’t come out to the dugout for the second half.
That half was just fourteen minutes old when Victor Wanyama was red-carded too.
Most of the first half was played with ten men.
Most of the second was played with nine.
Our manager was dispatched to the stand at half time just to make sure.
“We were never going to be allowed to win this game,” I said to my mate in disgust, shortly before leaving the pub that day with the score 3-0 to Rangers. It finished 3-2, with Bocanegra going off and Celtic getting a spot kick, but it was too late in the game for it to matter and everyone inside and outside the ground knew that.
I know what Sevco fans will say about my assertion that the hand of the Brotherhood was brought to bear to assure our defeat that day, but I’ve never wavered from that view one bit and I never will. There are certain occasions when a Celtic win just won’t be tolerated.
That day, when we’d have taken the title at their ground, with their very future hanging by a thread, was one of them.
Sevco are in a perilous place, although you wouldn’t know that to read the papers.
They are winning league games and have reached a cup semi-final but there are major structural deficiencies at the club which are certain to bring major trouble. It’s important for their future that they are painted in the best possible light, because not to would risk destabilising them further when it’s the last thing they need. They are on the way to the SPL, but as I’ll prove later this week that’s not quite the panacea many would have you believe.
Part of this is doing well on the pitch, of course, and the coming Scottish Cup semi-final is a monumental moment for them.
I’ve already gone over the way their penalty count in the Championship greatly exceeds that of their rivals – and even the top teams in the SPL – but that only tells half the story. The big headline moments in games rarely do.
I like a wee flutter and last week, before the Scottish cup tie between Celtic and Morton started, I told my girlfriend that the bet of the day was for a Celtic player to be booked in the first ten minutes of the game. I was right.
Erik Sviatchenko was yellow carded right on the mark, and yesterday when he was the victim of a shocking yellow and a penalty decision I realised right then what the biggest danger to Celtic’s winning the double was going to be.
It’s going to be Honest Mistakes. Dodgy decisions.
It would be more evident already if there wasn’t a degree of ambivalence about the destination of the SPL title this year.
Most Sevconian’s would far rather their team was the one to pull us off the perch; they also know that Aberdeen winning the league would rock the foundations of Celtic Park and necessitate wholescale changes on a level that would put us miles beyond their reach.
Those who consider themselves deeper thinkers would far rather we took the title this year and that it saved the job of Ronny Deila, keeping us in a state of flux for another twelve months.
But cup triumph tantalises them, and we’ve already how shown how vulnerable we are to bad decisions in those games.
Two years on the bounce now, we’ve been denied a chance at cup glory because of appalling red cards and our manager’s inability to steer the team to victory when we’ve suffered a major setback.
If a good courtroom strategy depends on the flow of argument, the use of a single word “Objection!” can stop a good lawyer dead in his tracks.
A referee can do the same, with selective use of cards, free kicks, advantages and even discretion.
Remember, it doesn’t necessarily take a red card or a penalty to change the flow of a game. Issue a flurry of yellows early in a match and you can disrupt a team’s plan before it even gets properly started. Allow a couple of harsh tackles and you give a side license to rough-house the opposition all day long. If the linesman gets busy with the flag it stops players trying through balls and can force a team to change its entire style of play.
Jock Stein was aware of these things and used to say “If you’re good enough the referee doesn’t matter.”
He’ was right, of course, but this Celtic team has vulnerabilities and everyone, including our friends in the Brotherhood, know exactly what they are.
This is our biggest concern, and it would be less worrying if our manager was the type to protest dodgy decisions.
He tries too hard to be a gentleman, this guy, and right now that’s the last thing we need in the dressing room.
Ronny needs to start fighting on this front now.
This is how they’re going to try to take the double away from him, and us.