If you’ve been following the press today you’ll know that a new report has highlighted some interesting statistics on the teams who get the most penalties in the top flight in Scotland.
You’ll probably know even if you’re not aware of the study who gets the most.
For all that, some of the hacks have described these figures as “surprising.”
Not to us they aren’t, not to Celtic supporters.
Sevco, of course, sits proudly at the top, being awarded a penalty, on average, once every 411 minutes of play.
That’s 23 in 105 surveyed games; almost one every four football matches.
There are some who will say this is because they are one of the most attacking teams in the league … but that doesn’t stand up at all when you consider where we are.
Celtic, the best attacking side in the country, sits in seventh.
That’s shocking.
But it is not in the least bit surprising.
We got 14 penalties in 106 games … about one in every eight games. Celtic gets a penalty once every 681 minutes, in contrast to the Ibrox club.
How many times have we all heard that “these things even themselves out”?
How many times have we heard that every club in the league hates it when “the Glasgow teams” visit because we get all the decisions?
Seventh on the penalty list, with the most attacking side?
Does it sound like we routinely get decisions that other clubs wouldn’t get?
If we did, that would mean almost every Celtic penalty decision was contentious.
To read some of the clowns in the mainstream media you’d think that was true anyway.
But what does that mean for the decisions we don’t get? And there are a lot of them.
These figures show us what we’ve always known; Celtic gets less penalty kicks than is normal for such an attacking side and Sevco gets more than anyone else in Scotland.
There is no “surprise” at all here, none to be had.
The evidence is there, but we didn’t need to review it in this fashion … we can see it with our own eyes, and we do, time and time again.
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