Well, well, well.
You can tell how serious a club is about feeling hard-done by and pissed on during a game by how they respond to it I reckon. When Sevco are on the end of a major reversal they always find some excuse to run to the media, screaming, foaming at the mouth, demanding answers and meetings and explanations.
Often that’s done for effect, but you always know they are sincere.
Like any psychopath, they do feel their own suffering.
Celtic does things professionally, going through the proper channels, and we have a formidable rep inside Hampden for getting results in disciplinary cases. Those who mistake our calm approach for nonchalance or complacency would be mugs to believe it.
If we had come out of the cup final at the weekend believing we had been cheated out of the trophy we would have raised 200 kinds of Hell. On no account would we have allowed it to stand. Had we felt a player in the opposing team dived, won a penalty and got one of our players sent off we would have painted Hampden fifty shades of red.
Which is why Motherwell’s decision not even to appeal the weekend’s decision is a little baffling. Except not really.
They spent the aftermath of the game shrieking about injustice when the real issue was their profound hurt at being “nearly” men. They knew they didn’t deserve to win the cup and that they wouldn’t have won it whether that decision had gone their way or not, so their anger can probably be best understood in that context.
They claim they didn’t want to “waste money” on an appeal they didn’t think they would win; dear oh dear. Once again, do you think the costs would have stopped us had we believed a real injustice had been done? Of course not.
The player himself is very lucky the compliance officer didn’t take action against him for his vicious tackle on Dembele, which now looks set to cost us the player for some upcoming games. There is also no action being taken against Sinclair for his alleged dive; the reaction to that online has been absolutely hilarious, as you can probably imagine.
So let’s recap here; Motherwell have not appealed the decision they say has cost them a major trophy and Celtic’s player, who the media and the Fir Park club have accused of diving, will face no action over it. What does that tell you?
I’ll tell you what it says to me; Case Closed.
As if there was ever the slightest doubt about it in the first place.