Ferguson’s Team Kicked Celtic Off The Park. He Can Moan About Criticism All He Wants.

Barry Ferguson gave an exclusive interview to The Daily Record – who else? – yesterday in which he had a right good moan because our big Greek striker Giakoumakis called his team out for their thuggish behaviour during the weekend’s Scottish Cup tie.

Last night, even as Ferguson was moaning to his tabloid pets, Ange Postecoglou was firing back on behalf of the club, finally expressing his outrage over the tackle on Ideguchi which could have cost the player months.

It was an assault, which Don Robertson allowed to pass without showing the red card. When other clubs are sticking in official grievances because the ball blows on the penalty spot and the ref lets the goal stand, a lot of us feel we should be hauling Robertson over the coals and not just for that incident but for a litany of others in the same game.

Ferguson and his coaching buddy – the neddish Bob Malcolm – have the incredible distinction of having forced no fewer than three of our players to leave the field in a single game.

No other club, no matter their hatchet-man behaviour, has managed to do that.

It is virtually unheard of, and if it had happened in England we’d be marvelling at the fallout.

Some have accused Robertson of losing control of the game; I don’t think he did.

He was in full control, that was the problem.

He made the conscious decision to let them away with everything short of literal murder, and he probably would only have shown the yellow card had an Alloa player gone that far.

It was a refereeing performance of the most diabolical kind.

Ferguson can cry the blues all he wants because his team is being called out for its brutality. The criticism is not only richly deserved, it is necessary. Our fans want to see our club stand up for its players, because anything less is an abrogation of responsibility. Teams should not be allowed to just kick us off the park, and that was Alloa’s whole game plan.

Ferguson’s wailing is pathetic. It was perfectly clear what his team went out to accomplish, and it wasn’t to reach the next round of the Scottish Cup. He sent his team out there to maim, and I don’t care how much he denies it.

We all watched it happen.