Celtic Players Are Offered No Protection On The Pitch. This Really Cannot Continue.

There are times, as a Celtic blogger, when I have to step back from my own perceptions to see whether the rest of the world is seeing things in the same way as I am.

There are times when I know I’m being biased, and that’s allowed.

But there are other subjects I write about when I have to play with a straighter bat, and at those times I have to seek an opinion other than my own because I don’t want my own prejudices to inhibit the work.

Yesterday I knew what I was watching on TV.

I knew that we were seeing a brutal, vicious performance from Alloa, led as they are by two arch Ibrox men, Ferguson and Malcolm.

I knew they had kicked us off the park, and I knew the ref had failed to protect our players.

But it was good to read that same view not only amongst our community but amongst the media too.

I thought the conduct of their team yesterday was atrocious. I thought the rough-housing we were subjected to was a scandal, and I thought that the referee was a flat-out disgrace especially in the delay between Callum going down and his allowing our medical people onto the pitch. Our club should be raising ninety-nine kinds of Hell over that.

Ange is a good guy, and we all respect him for his decency and intelligence.

But I cannot be alone in wishing he were a little more vocal on this.

We are already in the midst of a long run of bad injuries. Part of the problem is that teams know they can behave as Alloa did yesterday without serious sanction. The officials do not prevent their worst behaviour.

That makes it all the more important that the club stands up, and we are failing to do so. Don Robertson’s failure to allow our medical team onto the pitch the moment McGregor went down should have sparked fury not only on the Celtic bench, but at every level of the club, and we should have been asking for an explanation as soon as the final whilst blew.

The tackle on Ideguchi was truly shocking.

To me there’s simply no debate that the challenge deserved the red card, and the Japanese player was very lucky not to avoid a serious injury. Richard Foster was allowed to spew all kinds of tripe on BBC Scotland yesterday; I wrote about that earlier.

No-one else really doubts that it was a sending off.

But, again, we didn’t complain in the aftermath of the game.

Look at Ibrox the other day; they managed to find eight separate things to bitch and gripe about in their “letter” to the SFA and I’m betting that not one of them was as serious as the failure to send off the Alloa thug who hacked down our player, or the ref’s failure to get the medical people on instantly when McGregor went down.

They moaned about the goddamned ball blowing on the penalty spot.

What are we going to do about the ref endangering the safety of our captain?

Honestly, we lost three players yesterday in a single game because of the treatment we were subjected to and the club cannot think that’s alright.

The referee singularly failed to impose order or control on our opponents, who’s manager went on the telly last night and talked about how well they played.

At what? Rollerball?

Because in the football match I watched they couldn’t manage a single shot on target after they’d scored their late goal, so the great comeback attempt I keep hearing about is another work of fiction.

And even as I’m writing this, my old man has told me that Kevin Clancy is making the news, with an apparent punishment beating at the hands of the SFA over Ibrox’s complaint.

They raised a stink over nothing whastoever … and a referee has been publicly rebuked as a result of it.

The only other times that’s happened this season is when decisions have gone in favour of us.

You could not make that up.

In the meantime, Don Robertson’s abysmal decision making is defended by an ex-Ibrox player via the national broadcaster whilst Celtic barely stirs.

If we don’t stand up for ourselves better, we will continue to be on the end of these shocking displays from the officials.

We have ample grounds for complaint here.

The basic safety of our players is at stake, and that should really concern us.

If we don’t act, we deserve everything we get.

On top of everything else, this kind of thing could cost us this title.

Our club simply cannot remain silent about the treatment we are subjected to and the lack of official protection for our stars.

We need to be vocal. We need to speak out now.