Bobby Madden has been picked to referee the Scottish Cup Final. I’ve read some pretty negative comments about that this afternoon, and you know what? I have no concerns whatsoever about it. Madden is the last guy I wanted officiating in this game, but he’s one of a few who don’t wish us well and I wouldn’t be worried about any of the others.
I won’t say that the officials have no influence over our games, but let’s face it if they were trying to make it as hard as possible this season they’ve miserably failed. We remain unbeaten. We go into the final itself on the back of skelping Sevco in the semi-final with Scott Brown on the park, in spite of the best efforts of the Mibbery to have him ruled out.
The Mibbery has not been able to stand in our way thus far. I very much doubt they will now. This is not Ronny’s team, where a single reversal was often enough to stall us. That’s no longer the case and even in those games where there have been bad decisions we’ve overcome them.
At Pittodrie we were three up inside eleven minutes; start like that and the impact the ref can have on any game is reduced to just about zero. On top of that, we’re watching every move these people make now and they know it. Sevco fans can bubble and wail about us “putting officials under pressure” but as I said in an earlier piece what we got for our trouble was the level playing field and that’s all. It’s all we wanted too, because on that ground we will win.
We shouldn’t underestimate the officials but if they didn’t stop us at Hampden before now, and they weren’t able to prevent the Massacre of Ibrox then I say even they are a bust when it comes to stopping our march towards history.
We’ve seen their influence this season, but it’s much less than it would be if we weren’t focussed and determined and playing as well as we are.
Madden’s performance at Celtic Park was ridiculous. It’s not the only time I’ve written those words about him, but I am not afraid of what he might do. This will come down to who wants the win more and with so much at stake I can’t see past us.