Celtic didn’t win that game today because of the officials. If the ref gives Aberdeen the late spot kick they score and the game goes to penalties anyway. They got what their play deserved at the end; a goal right at the death to send it to a shoot-out. I have a ton of respect for what they achieved on the pitch, but it was not the officials who cost them a cup final place.
Celtic seemed to be going out of their way to hand Aberdeen the chance, they didn’t need the intervention of the ref of the men on VAR. But a lot of them are complaining anyway. A lot of the Sevconuts are complaining as well, making common cause with the Dons fans for the first time in my living memory. There is nothing they won’t do to prop up their fantasies.
I thought some of the decisions today were pretty poor. I’m not convinced by either penalty, although the one late in extra time is more of one than the handball. But say Aberdeen fans are on to something; say the officials got both of those decisions atrociously wrong. Say the officials are actually instrumental in their team going out.
Well, then their anger would be justified and if they wanted to make a hue and cry of it, who could blame them? But it only brings them into line with where we already are.
Yes, we think the SFA is a fundamentally corrupt organisation. Yes, we are well aware that Aberdeen and Hibs fans and Hearts fans and all the rest think it’s as filled up with Celtic fans – a gross error on their part which stops them seeing the real issue.
Yet it doesn’t really matter to what needs to be done.
If you think your team was just deprived of a cup final place because of a dodgy refereeing call, whether you think that’s favouritism or big club bias, or whatever it is you ascribe that to, and if you think that’s the normal run of things whenever you come up against a “Glasgow side” then you are already, whether you know it or not, in favour of reform officiating.
So, my question to you is this; why don’t you act like it?
Here’s another question; what have you actually done to drive that agenda forward?
We want the same thing, we’re on the same side. If there are biased officials at Hampden, believe me we want shot of them. So do you. If there are incompetent officials or those who are simply scared to give big decisions in big games, I don’t want them refereeing matches any more than you and your supporters and I’d very much like to see them drummed out, or relegated to the lower leagues where they won’t have to get involved in such things.
So if you guys have arrived where we are I can only say that it’s about time. See, the funny thing is, as I’ve long been saying, the Ibrox fans should already be exactly where we are; they believe in the Conspiracy Of The Unseen Fenian Hand and that it dominates all of Scottish football; they should also be convinced of the need for reform … they curiously do not.
But we’ll take anyone in Team Reform, even the Ibrox supporters who are serious about thinking our officiating stinks, and so Aberdeen fans are more than welcome to the party. If you’re game for it the first thing you have to do is start to lobby your club. Get the message through to them that you are concerned and no longer willing to tolerate it.
Otherwise you might as well say nothing and accept your lot. See, the thing about us is that we don’t just talk. We do give our club a hard time on this, we do not simply accept it as part of the natural order. Unless you’re willing to do the same, you’re screaming into the gale to nobody’s benefit. Surely that’s not how you want this to go?
The one at the end was a penalty. I had the sound off so I don’t know what was going on. I was stunned it wasn’t given.
The handball? I don’t think it was a penalty but I have no idea what the rules are so don’t know why it wasn’t given or why it should have been.
If sevco did what we did today, we would have been angry.
You had 2 choices James. Say nothing or say what you said about reform.
Fair enough you went the way you did.
Don’t think the CCV one was a penalty. The Aberdeen players leg was already stretched way too awkwardly and he was already fallin when CV’s boot contacted his heel. Not a penalty, no for me.
Of course, a lot of people’ll take solace in this crap because theyre pissed at us gettin through. This is what they’re all gonnae jump on now for the next week. It’s the excuse the media and the usual suspects have been lookin for, tae somehow get a negative angle on our team. They’ll use it tae take the focus aff ‘phillipe’ and the ibrox team. The CCV incident would’ve been a ridiculous award. Their player was already fallin and he was goin nowhere except the deck when CCV’s boot caught him. And whether it was even inside or no, where the fk was Scales supposed tae put his hand in the other incident, up his Jersey ? That would’ve been another soft award. Tae be fair ah think Robertson had a good game today in general.
I’ll have a monkey on a first half dodgy Tavpen the morra.
Cry harder, Billiam.
I can partly see where your anger is coming from Billy Boy as your heroes put in a helluva shift today and if they did that on a weekly basis then youse wouldn’t have finished in the bottom six…
I believe your caretaker manager stated that the officials told him that the challenge was a definite penalty but there was a foul by Aberdeen in the build up –
I must also state that I understand your dismay given that youse have also been robbed home and away and in TheLeague Cup Final against the newest football club in Glasgow that are as of today 11 years and 267 days old – Namely Sevco !
But I hope we can take care of them in the final for you as they will inevitably get there by way of their usual officials cheating with whistles, flags and monitors on their behalf and I know fine well that Dandy Dons Fans like yourself far prefer Celtic to Sevco for sure…
Anyway commiserations to your fine Dandy Dons today Billy Boy and good luck to you’d in your quest to finish at the pinnacle of the bottom six table !
The CCV incident was never a penalty, he was trying to kick the ball when the Don’s player threw his foot in to try and make contact, his foot was kicked, the power of CCVs kick kept him upright, had CCV been running and the Don’s player does the same the CCV would have been tripped and a free kick to Celtic. Re the hand ball, yes the ball tickled his hand. SFA have brought this on themselves by allowing pens to be awarded for the slightest unintentional touch. At least this Ref had more sense.
James, is Billy Boy a parody or a proddy
@ BB. Yer deranged comment says more about you than anythin else. Clearly hurtin badly, so suck it up Billy Bhoy and here’s hopin there’s more tae come.
Any club that has been done wrong should get on board. That would be 11 in total, not the club with the right back heading for world records , and not many medals lol .
William Hills have opened up the penalty odds in the wee rangers game. Jump on board. HH
A lot of the people squealing will be the same ones who for years told us – regularly – that we are paranoid and that ‘honest mistakes’ will balance out over the course of a season…. except when they don’t like the decisions. You would think then that they would be in favour of professionalising refereeing, removing it from the pernicious influence of wretched individuals like the no doubt Right Worshipful Hugh Dallas and his Lanarkshire Refereeing Association cabal, declaring allegiances, avoiding conflicts of interest and generally removing doubt and improving standards…. but no, they either lack the cognitive bandwidth to think that far ahead or (more likely) it’s simply a visceral reaction because they just dinnae like it when they think Timmy got a rub of the green.
Don Robertson is an awful referee, he is an absolute throwback and lets way too many rough tackles go and VAR has made him look worse because he lets all sorts go but then has to reverse his real-time decisions, often for relatively minor stuff such as at Tynecastle, after VAR reviews. Due to being at pitch-level in the cheap seats at Hampden yesterday I got plenty of sunburn but had little view of the CCV incident in real time and the ‘handball’ incident was news to me, but even at the time the VAR message on the screen was quite clear the decision in the CCV incident was not about that tackle but about a foul by Aberdeen in the build-up to it, so as usual our world class media are squealing in their shrill voices about the wrong part of the episode…..
Hi James , you will love Keevins article this morning , pretty sure you called this recently !
Anyway if the “penalty “ incidents came in a league game , I reckon both would have been given . Refs get called to the monitor for less and couldn’t believe we got away with them
I thought the Carter vickers one was a penalty, so I’m glad about that, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really change the game James, as they scored anyway and took it to extra time, and were then defeated by penalties. I thought Celtic played well in spells, we got hit with the counter attack , and our defending was pretty poor. I did not understand Brendan taking off James Forrest, then puting another defender on, I feel as though that had the opposite effect. I am happy we are in the final, and I fancy us to win the cup.
Totally agree who’s to say they would have scored the penalty anyway as you said we need other clubs to drive the corrupt sfa out instead of same old celtic conspiracy theorists
Go and watch ACSOM/ SFA refereeing under the spotlight, and then come back to us, in fact share it with all your like minded people first. HH
2 decisions called right by officials but its Celtic and certain parties & media not happy with these decisions going their way as its not supposed to work out this way. Aberdeen give it a good shot after looking dead 2nd half but fell short & Celtic move on.
You can be sure this result will be debated for weeks by scottish media but who gives a f**k. Just one other point Celtic need to stop stupid passes out of defence when under no real pressure as it cost them yesterday.
Okay numbnut, we all had some fun toying with you, but the laugh’s over 🙂 Bye!
Oh James, I know that you need much deserved time off…
But bloody hell – I so much miss ma daily fix of your excellent content and your 99.9% of excellent comments and contributors to the comments section !
It’ll be open season by The Scummy Scottish Football Media all week on The ‘Celtic get everything’ mantra for certain…
I expect that you’ll be reporting on this a couple of times as well James –
I honestly wouldn’t wanna be winning in ‘that’ manner so to speak but fcuk it they owe us more than a few dodgy decisions and I will take a rare one that comes our way – I’ll have to just as I’ve had to like all of us suffer the hell of the reverse over years and no doubt will have to in the future also…
But anyway – Didn’t The Aberdeen Manager say the officials told him that that they would’ve given the penalty but there was a foul in the build up…
So it’s all a moot point regardless then but that won’t stop The Scummy Scottish Football Media having their field days in the sun day after day for the next few weeks…
Not a great choice today about who one wants to win – But C’mon ye Jambos !
But CCV said it WAS a penalty!
Apparently the penalty was not given, due to a foul on AJ in the lead up to the incident. We should of course have been awarded a penalty, when Idah was cleaned out in the Aberdeen box.
Hail Hail.