Those Defending Last Night’s Ibrox Penalty Are Just Embarrassing Themselves.

Last night, as we all know, John Beaton gave a highly contentious, not to say absolutely scandalous, penalty kick at Ibrox.

Watching it several times, you really don’t see anything in it except that the home team was a goal down and desperately needed a lifeline. Beaton, who has previous for being on hand to give them a good turn, duly provided.

That the “merits” of this decision are being debated, anywhere, is an embarrassment.

Because the decision had no merit whatsoever.

I was aghast this morning to watch the BBC Sportscene team try to defend it. Others in the media are frantically searching the rulebook for some modest justification. But there is none. The decision is a shocker.

Instead of trying to find logic to it, Beaton himself should be under the spotlight.

We all know what John Beaton is. We all know which team he supports. We know full well that Beaton cannot be trusted to officiate their matches, and yet the whole media pretends that this is not the case, as though not talking about a thing will change the reality of it.

I think Scottish football’s hacks must love these routine humiliations. Not one of the three panellists on that show looked comfortable trying to defend this decision, but all of them did so as not to offend the SFA or Ibrox itself.

The Aberdeen manager, on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on and claimed not only that the penalty was a shocker but that the free kick for the first goal was another piece of dire officiating, and having watched it he is correct.

Scottish refereeing standards are absolutely dire. Whether it’s corruption or rank incompetence, we’re not going to improve them by attempting to find rationales for decisions like those last night. Either Beaton is hopelessly bad or he is shamelessly bent.

Whichever one you opt for, this guy shouldn’t be handling major SPFL fixtures and all people are doing when they try to explain this stuff away is continuing to give him a legitimacy he does not deserve. And until they stop, nothing is going to change.