Who is Scotland’s top referee at the moment? Who has the most experience? Who would you think would have been the odds-on favourite to take the game at the weekend, which is the biggest match in the country since the SPFL campaign began?
We know that two contenders are Clancy and Collum. But neither of them is in the running. No-one wants Don Robertson, who thought Sands should have stayed on the pitch at the weekend, which is one of the dodgiest calls I have ever seen.
Instead, we’ve got the relative inexperience of Nick Walsh, and that has caused some concern. Because he hasn’t been doing this long and he’s only ever taken one of these games before, and that one when the league race was already well and truly over.
So why Walsh? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not entirely unsatisfied with the decision, because some of the other options – such as the appalling Beaton – could be worse. But you have to think that Ibrox’s moaning had something do with the narrowing of options here.
Let’s not kid ourselves here; we both know that they have been squealing behind the scenes and have made sure that Clancy and Collum don’t get high profile games involving them for the foreseeable future. They won’t stop there.
Walsh is a strange one. He attended a Catholic school, but he works as a PE teacher at one where the Ibrox youth academy sends its kids. None of that is the point. Ibrox has shown that it is perfectly willing to have referees kicked out of these sort of fixtures, and so Walsh will be on notice regardless of what his personal beliefs might be.
As this website has pointed out, the whole debate over Collum came down to a single decision, which was overturned on appeal. Don Robertson has not been put under a bit of pressure for his scandalous call at the weekend, and that’s the point.
They all know now that sending off Ibrox players results in complaints, and so does sending players off against us, which is why Clancy isn’t in the running either. Robertson didn’t get any real flak for the Sands decision, although it as clear-cut a second bookable offence as you’ll ever see and could easily have been a straight red for his being the last man.
So we go into this one with Mr Inexperience, and he already knows what he can do and what he can’t if he wants to get more of these games.
Should we be concerned? Of course we should.
There is nothing to be concerned about, other than the usual anti-Celtic bias shown by most referees. That is not under our control, so we can only bewilder them with our irresistible football style and leave as little scope as possible for the referee to cause us problems. The fact that it isn’t Beaton is a major plus and I am happy enough with Walsh.
COYBIG!
Yes we should because he’s a crooked c*nt
We and the club should ALWAYS be concerned with whatever referee is appointed to our games in Scotland, as they’re always going to be either corrupt huns, incompetent cowards, or possibly mixed-up in shady gambling activities…and because of that we need to always be ready to score 5.
Seriously compromised and should never be near a sevco game.
Also look at his record of sending players off against rangers,we should be concerned
I’ve never really been fussed who the referee is, I just feel the best team will take the match. Whether it’s Nick Walsh, or Ruby Walsh who refs it, it don’t matter to me. If we show up, and play to our potential, 3 points will be coming back to paradise as far as I’m concerned. Middle to front we have been awesome, I know our opponents havnt been up to much, but the free flowing football has been a joy to witness. 5 points ahead at 2.15 pm on Saturday, is looking extremely likely.
1. Nick Walsh isn’t a terrible choice and might actually be one of the better prospects.
2. Last man isn’t a thing. Please stop being part of the propagation of this dugmeat. He could’ve had a straight red either because it was a horrendous challenge, enough to be serious foul play (a rugby tackle at a football game?) or because he denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity (he didn’t). In all truth it was a second yellow more than a straight red.
Otherwise your points are spot on.
Completely disagree re it not being DAOAOG-SO – the County player would have been clean through on goal (as Sands was falling to the ground so couldn’t cover). Yes he was still 35 yards from goal but that doesn’t matter – he would only have had the keeper to beat thus its 100% an obvious goal-scoring OPPORTUNITY. The key word is opportunity – it doesn’t matter how easy or difficult it is etc. If if its an obvious opportunity and you deny it outside the box its a straight card – period.
We have a team that can negate the dodgy doings of the MIB. It’s the linesmen that will make the difference, they now know Kyogo can bust the offside to bits, so early calls to stop his movement is the ploy I think they’ll employ. It’s simple, play our game and the Ref is irrelevant, and so are his sidekicks.
I have faith in us to win well.
With the technology we have available to us today, we should be able to have a holographic representation of Pierluigi Collina in his prime years reffing the game. I bet even if that were possible there would still be fans blaming the unseen hand or the masonic influence for decisions that went against them.
the huns would see through it…….
We’ll soon see. Thing about Collum is although he’s been culpable of weird and dubious decisions, he’s no scared or easily intimidated by them or anybody else. Walsh, big question mark. Tbh although we’ve a massive goal threat in our favor, my own concern is our lack of muscle in midfield. Apart from Mooy, who since he’s came, hasn’t wasted a pass that I’ve seen, we still don’t match their strength in mid. That tae me can have a big influence on these games.
One or 2 penalties for sevco and a sending off or 2 that should keep the games coming his way for sevco games.
It’s a joke! A bad one but your right the huns squealing has made sure no collum or Clancy tho the halfwits have short memories as Collum in particular has aided them against us several times! Penalty given he never even saw! Fact and Jozzo off on the say so of that thst tory that no doubt hates our Great club. Another problem I have about these amateurs is ” the o f game has to be handled differently”! Utter bs! Apply the rules tho they do when it’s our player diving in to tackles! Same with mclean on Sunday adding on 1 minute see it’s the power play passed down from the bigot ( provan one at that)!Dallas and his ” school master” bs! Tho again which always aided the huns! Ref the game apply the f##king rules like any normal game that all we ask! Cant wait to we leave this landscape of amateurs! Huns and self proclaimed ” diddy teams! I loved to leave them all to it Asap!
We are watching a pre-determined match whenever Sevco play as there’s always an honest mistake whether it’s a booking decision or a penalty decision,the penalty stats stand up for themselves,lest we forget the 4 penalties in one game,how could we? Anyone that watched the Sands foul and thought the same as the referee is beyond reproach.
I’m just glad the Madden’s gone, he definitely did change the outcome of play with the way he would ref the games against them. Instead of getting the cards out he would just let hun players grab, pull back or hit out at our players, eg the clear pulling back by Lungstuck in the SC semi last season should have led to a 2nd booking by any ref. Madden changed the outcome of the game right there.
So if the huns can’t stop our style of play, a dodgy ref just changes the style in which the game is refed. It shouldn’t be allowed. Over the last year or so there’s been a momentum shift in tackles that would have been classed as fouls where play is allowed to continue. Robertson allowing that tackle on Hatate at Alloa was as disgraceful as his failure to pull out and book or send off Lungstruck last week’. He’s decided he likes to see pull backs, tough injury hard man tackling.
So where is the panel that looks at shit decisions this week? Where is the outcry for a retrospective sending off for Sands, the press and media have pretty much all said it should at minimum been a 2nd booking but feck all. It may not all be corrupt but some of it is. The jury is out on Walsh but Madden is simply one less to worry about
Oops Guchi not Reo
Despite them being carthorses, I hate to see Armfield, Jack and Lundstrom coming on as subs. You always feel they will score with an eyes-closed blooter at the ball.
As for referees, I remember Mowat, Davidson, Wharton, The Symes, Craigmyle, Phillips, Valentine and many more
and they all had one thing in common, an unnatural hatred of Celtic. I remember after one game when Jock Stein passed David Syme after a game and Jock remarked, “your father (Willie) would have been proud of you today.”
Those were the days when it was “Mowat of Rutherglen”, “Davidson of Airdrie”, etc, “Dallas of Bonkle” seems to been the last of that caper and no wonder. Dallas of carbonkle would have suited him better.
Effar, I’m afraid you are wrong about Hugh Phillips, his family were Celtic supporters. He didn’t last long in refereeing after giving two stick on penalties to Celtic in the 1965 League Cup Final that Big Yogi scored from.
My selection of the five most biased anti Celtic referees I’ve seen in over 70 years of supporting Celtic is 1st place R.. Davidson, 2nd W Syme, 3rd H Dallas, 4th Tiny Wharton. In modern times Beaton is most definetly in 1st place’
There have been times when Celtic are so good it doesn’t matter how biased the referees are we have been successful despite their bitterness. I think we may be about to live through one of those times.