I have no doubt that Aberdeen fans have been eagerly awaiting tonight’s game for a long time. With their current form, they’re as confident against the Ibrox club as they’ve been in years, and that confidence is fully justified—not only by their own performances but by those of the club across town.
Still, one thing would have been on their minds from the start. When they were eyeing the fixture list and it looked like they could be six points clear in the league going into this game, they’d have had the same worry we all do: the fear of “honest mistakes.”
Every one of us knows that fear—the fear of being cost a game by officials.
And for Aberdeen fans, that fear has already materialised with the SFA’s decision to put John Beaton in charge. This game is a must-win for the away side; it’s critical they don’t lose. And yet our governing bodies seem intent on making sure they don’t.
What did I say the other day about “the empire strikes back”? We may have struck a blow with the recent push for reforms, but you can never count these people out. They’re still out there, and they remain a threat to every club in the league that doesn’t play out of Ibrox. That’s a cold, hard fact.
Aberdeen fans should be furious that Beaton was chosen for this game when everyone knows what he is. There’s no question about it—everyone is well aware that John Beaton should be nowhere near matches like this. Yet here he is, handed another high-stakes game where the Ibrox club is desperate for a result.
The “honest mistakes” brigade had better be careful though because, whether they realise it or not, this fixture will have a huge audience. With the rarity of a title race that doesn’t just involve the two Glasgow clubs, this is a national game—UK-wide. If the decisions are obviously biased, people outside our league will be talking about it for weeks, if not months.
This is why you don’t often get game-changing bad decisions in Glasgow derbies anymore. Apart from the fact that we usually play well enough to counteract them, those decisions are under too much scrutiny. That’s why they come in games like the one with the Ibrox club and St Mirren over the weekend —games few people watch, matches away from the live Sky cameras. It’s in those matches that you see the worst decisions, with little outside scrutiny.
This game, however, is an exception. Aberdeen may benefit from the fact that all eyes will be on this fixture, and Beaton and his crew can’t go too far. But with so much at stake for the Ibrox club, you never know how far they might push it.
The mere act of assigning Beaton to this game sends a message, and Aberdeen would be naive to ignore it. The message is that, no matter how much we talk about change and reform, the old ways still prevail. And those ways still favour the Ibrox club.
It will be a battle, a tough encounter, and that’s where Beaton and his team can do the most damage—by allowing the Ibrox club to get away with murder and punishing every 50-50 challenge from the home side.
So, Aberdeen won’t just be facing their opponents; they’ll be up against the officials too. But this is their moment, their chance at home, in front of a full house, unbeaten in all but one game.
Their fans have waited a long time for this, and they shouldn’t have to worry about what a dodgy official might do. But this is Scottish football, and that’s the reality. It will stay that way until we get the real reforms that this game needs.
Spoke with an old friend on Sunday ( Aberdeen fan) I told him to watch out for the referee and VAR appointments, and told him it will probably be cheatin Beaton for their game against sevco and a not so discreet h* n on var .
He thought no way the sfa would appoint cheatin Beaton.
Well they have and as soon as I saw the officials straight on to the bookies red card to Aberdeen and tav pen put a fair bit on for me £50 .
I would gladly loose my cash for an Aberdeen win , can’t see it happening though with the officials they have the sfa have appointed.
I have got to the stage now that I never cheer a Celtic goal until I am sure it has been given, there has been that many disallowed since VAR.
James
Shocking that Beaton has been given this game, as it’s a massive audience on TV I think Beaton can get away with it IF he sends a Dons player off…..and IMHO he will be desperate to do just that, the tackles will be flying in so any chance to weaken the Dons then he will take it.
Why skirt around the issue James? Just publish the truth along the lines of “We all know that the MIB are cheats who do all that they can to help Rangers in any shape or form that they can! The binggest cheat of thems MIB being Beaton, a proven rangers supporter in plain sight.”
Everybody seems tae think this game’s a foregone conclusion and Aberdeen are gonnae beat them. Ah wee word of caution. That’s usually when the unexpected can and will happen time and again. Just sayin.
Aberdeen will need to keep both the Hun players and the ball out of their box to avoid penalties.
I’d say it’s a stick on for an Aberdeen red… almost definitely as a 2 yellow one, lest VAR intervene. The bar for a free kick and for a card will be wildly different…more like when the zombies played us last season than a normal game.
Aberdeen have enough to overcome this, but with the account release the pressure to save sevco ramps us. No chance is TV scrutiny going to dampen Beaton’s quest.
We are now in the ludicrous situation where everyone who watches Scottish football (bar one set of fans) can guess what will happen, can see what happens and yet the ones running the game blindly ignore the evidence of the “pattern of assistance”. We should not live in hope of a fairly refereed game. It is frustrating/ depressing that, even when it is called out online, they know they can ignore any concerns. It is equally frustrating that no pundits feel they can point this out, surely they can see it too? If not, then they shouldn’t be commenting on our game. Why the clubs themselves don’t make more of an issue out of it, God only knows. Maybe Thelin as an “outsider” will call it out if (when?) there are any contentious decisions. We can but hope, but it seems that the authorities are happy for fans to get apathetic about watching football.
Beaton is a compromised official and the SFA know it, but he obviously has friends at Hampden and there is no way they are going to allow a demotion to the lower leagues.
For him to be appointed for this game is a two finger sign, not only to Aberdeen but to all of Scottish football.
It could be that this Ibrox team is so ordinary that even Beaton can’t help them, but in the early stages he’ll do his best and if it’s close near the end he could have a say in the outcome.
I’ve been watching Scottish referees since the days of Jack Mowat,Willie Syme and Tiny Wharton among others who never filled me with confidence, but honestly for the past 10 years he has been by far the worst, and has been on a shameless one man campaign to help his favourite team. He even denied Albion Rovers an historic win at Ibrox by awarding a goal to the home team after an assault on the Rovers goalkeeper, to gift them a draw and keep the new club in the Scottish Cup.
Even Beaton couldn’t keep The Dandy Dons down tonight !
Could we just be in a title race with someone that we actually wanna be in a title race with…
Fillipe Fillop remonstrating with Beaton on the pitchbat the end !