EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - MAY 03: Celtic's Alistair Johnston celebrates as Daizen Maeda scores to make it 1-0 during a William Hill Premiership match between Hibernian and Celtic at Easter Road, on May 03, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Yesterday, I put up a long piece about the Ibrox fans and their penchant for conspiracy theories, and how those conspiracy theories have grown to such momentous proportions that the Ibrox club itself now appears terrified of them.
They have convinced themselves that Celtic’s influence on the game is so entrenched that they don’t know whether they are capable of defeating it.
I knew yesterday, when the Maeda goal was given, that we were going to get another round of it.
I knew it even after the Hibs goal was allowed, in spite of that being one of the most ridiculous decisions you will ever see.
There is a certain inevitability about Ibrox fans losing their minds over something these days.
It doesn’t really matter whether there is anything to anchor it or not.
These people do not live in the real world. Increasingly, they are out of touch even with the meagre version of reality they inhabit.
We have all, at one time or another, laughed at the Grand Conspiracy of the Unseen Fenian Hand. But yesterday, they gave us something new. Something original. Something out of left field, even for them.
Even by their standards.
Even by all that we have come to know and expect from them.
A mad fantasy about Alistair Johnston’s boot, and what future history will deserve to remember as the Grand Conspiracy of the Giant Fenian Foot.
That was only one part of the madness they were willing to indulge.
You had Ibrox fan sites suggesting that Jamie McGrath deliberately got himself sent off to hinder his team’s chances and assist ours.
He got himself sent off with a high, studs-up challenge that could have ended Alistair Johnston’s season, and maybe even his career.
That seems an unusual way to do Celtic a favour.
It seems an unusual type of favour.
But this is the kind of thing they believe in. This is the sort of madness they cling to, and just when you think you have seen all they are capable of, there is always something new.
Hibs gave us a game yesterday. The sending off was stonewall. Maeda’s goal was perfectly good. The one Hibs scored should have been chopped off. There was also the penalty kick that we didn’t get.
Anyone who thinks there was some pro-Celtic refereeing conspiracy in action yesterday is absolutely howling at the moon.
But that is, after all, the perfect description for the people we are dealing with here.
One Ibrox site actually wrote the following about McGrath, and at first I laughed reading it.
But it is not really funny. It is pathetic:
“Easter Road was left baffled by Jamie McGrath’s sending off, especially when there was a much worse incident when Colby Donovan was given a warning for a clear, reckless challenge on Hibernian’s Jordan Obita in the Hoops’ 2-1 win last November. McGrath’s sending off changed the complexion of the game in Celtic’s favour, and even when the Hoops concede a goal, it always seems like it takes forever to actually be given against them, with O’Neill and Co. constantly complaining. Not to mention that members of McGrath’s family are Celtic fans, with suggestions that the player himself is one. Make of that what you will.”
Make of that what you will.
You could find this stuff funny if it were not so serious.
You could find these people amusing if they were not so dangerous.
The guy who wrote that goes back to a Colby Donovan tackle from November to justify a mad theory that McGrath both deliberately got himself sent off and somehow did not deserve to be sent off.
Just think about that.
That is Orwellian doublethink.
That is the kind of mental gymnastics these people are willing to perform to convince themselves this is all real.
Remember what I said yesterday. This is a support which tells its own club, over and over again, that they will not be allowed to win things.
They won’t be allowed to win, because everyone is conspiring against them.
If you listen to the words coming out of the club, it sounds as if the club itself believes that too.
So how are you supposed to build a winning mentality when losing is baked into your expectations, because you think the conspiracy already exists?
This is exactly what I mean when I say they have made their own dragons, and those dragons are eating everything.
Imagine the insanity required to conjure up the Grand Conspiracy of the Giant Fenian Foot and believe it. Imagine what it takes to believe that Jamie McGrath got himself sent off with a tackle you then try to argue isn’t even a red card.
In a way, you have to love these people. They provide tremendous entertainment.
But at the same time, you know there is something deeply disturbed about this stuff. There is something at its core that is wrong.
When you read something like that on a fan site, all you can hope is that the person who wrote it knows it is fantastical nonsense and is simply trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator among his own supporters for clicks.
But it all comes back to the same point.
If there was not an audience for this level of paranoia, they would not do it.
There would be no point putting an article like that out unless you knew people would read it, share it, like it, nod along to it and use it to feed their own delusions.
That makes it dangerous.
It makes it corrosive to public debate.
It makes it corrosive to Scottish football.
But these people do not care about that.
The people who post nonsense on Twitter about Alistair Johnston’s foot, Jamie McGrath’s Celtic-supporting family and every other phantom conspiracy are, in many ways, symptoms of a modern disease we can see everywhere on social media.
The weaponisation of bullshit.
The weaponisation of nonsense.
The weaponisation of grievance.
I want to laugh at it. Of course I do. Sometimes you have to laugh, because the alternative is to sit there staring at it in disbelief.
But then I think about what could have happened at Ibrox but for that police line, and suddenly it is not funny anymore.
Because that is where this kind of nonsense leads.
If Celtic win this title, a lot of these people will be convinced we were given it. Gifted it. That we stole it. That the unseen hand, the giant foot, the referees, the media, the SPFL and the whole apparatus of Scottish football somehow bent reality to make it happen.
Who knows what that will leave some of them thinking they are justified to do?
That is the danger of this stuff.
It starts as nonsense.
It becomes narrative.
Then, for some of them, it becomes permission.
And that is why it has to be called out every single time.
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Every support has a few maniacs but William takes it to a totally different level. They’re absolutely nuts if they think what you’ve just highlighted. It’s Trumpian delusion. If they don’t get a result tonight the meltdown will be of magnificent proportions.
Maybe I dont understand the off side rules anymore but AJ pulled the ball back to Daizen – AJ was further forward than Daizen when he played the ball so as was proven by VAR, it was onside.
Have i got that correct
Also I think im hoping for a draw this evening. We still need to win all 3 games irrespective of how tonights hunbogfest goes
There were 5 major incidents in that game and the on field team got every single one of them wrong. I’ll address them below. But first I want to talk about the AJ foot being enlarged nonsense. His foot is irrelevant in deciding the offside, the ball is what counts. If you’re going to invent a conspiracy at least invent one that has logic.
1. The Maeda penalty incident. The Hibs keeper comes for a ball as Maeda runs in. Maeda gets the ball, keeper gets Maeda. This is known as a foul. And in the box that results in a penalty. Yet on field team and VAR decision was doing that is absolutely fine.
2. The red card. McGrath goes studs first into AJ at mid calf height. Ref and AR deem it a yellow. VAR rightly advises upgrade for serious foul play.
3. The goal. AR was 2 or 3 metres behind play and wrongly gives offside. VAR rectify situation.
4. Hibs score after the ball accidentally comes off the scorer’s arm. This is clearly in the footage yet inexplicably everyone decides to award the goal anyway.
5. Nygren is pushed off the pitch in the box to stop him getting to the ball in a dangerous area. This is a penalty. Everyone apparently has decided the laws exclude Celtic
100% agree RefMartin. The officials were fucking useless yesterday
It’s beyond beyond parody. And you’re right about the madness encouraged by social media that gives this kind of lunacy credibility. Anyone in their right mind watching that game yesterday could see the failures in administering the laws of the game. Even the gurning prince Boyd said it’s a handball for the Hibs goal. Scott Allan reckoned the push on Nygren was a penalty. Despite having signed for us, he’s no friend of Celtic. The Daizen trip by the keeper was airbrushed away on the BBC.
“The Unseen Hand and The Giant Foot” could be the title of a documentary about season 2025/26 in Scottish football.
Or of an album by obscure ‘80s indie aesthetes Felt. It’s too abstract to be the title of an album title by The Fall.
So many mistakes in one game by the Referee, Linesman and the VAR team all going against one team should have repercussions, but will it? probably not. Refereeing a game of football is a hard shift of concentration and physical fitness, but quite honestly some referees in Scotland make it even harder by carrying their preconceived biases onto the field with them. Dickinson as a young ref is one who finds it hard not to favour the team he supports, with numerous dodgy decisions going the Ibrox way from him this season. Dundee Utd, Kilmarnock and Motherwell will testify to that. As an experienced referee Robertson let himself down badly yesterday in the VAR room, and Ross made a ridiculous decision on the Maeda goal when he was not in a position to make a decision as close as that.
As for the Ibrox sites, I actually hope Hearts beat them today and put them out of their misery.
They are and always have been a disease in Scottish football, with their tendency to violence along with sectarian and racist nonsense. Aided and abetted by the craven Scottish media, Including to their shame Keevins and English.
I’m the same Micmac in that I want them all but out of it tonight…
I just don’t trust this playing out from the back pish that we seem to fuckin well OBSESSED with these days against Sevco…
Then you have to factor in Sunday’s cheats with whistles flags and monitors as well…
If Hearts win tonight it becomes debatable wheather we can catch them or not…
Perhaps it could come down to goal difference in which case Dickinson the most dangerous of the fuckin lot of them out there – And that takes some beating – will have done his job for his Renfrew Masonic Lodge Clientele !
TRUMPERS. Enough said.
Moonhowlers doesn’t even begin to describe the maniacs in their support.
In a normal season we are good, strong and convincing enough to be so far ahead, that the cheats in black won’t have as much influence as they’d like !
Unfortunately, we are none of the above this season and the officials are playing a blinder to try & hinder every aspect of our title winning plans.
That the rabid Sevco clan still believe that officials side in our favour tells you all you need to know about the mentality in Govan!
“ Medication time Nurse Ratchett!!!”
Yesterday was another hugely tough watch but I am absolutely delighted we got another vital 3 points!
We are poor, no one can deny that but we have to admire our resilience, fortitude and belief in the face of such shortcomings !
I love Iheanacho and his goals but I must admit, I was shouting at the TV a few times at his laziness late on and not getting in front of his defender.
However, all is forgiven when you continue to score match winning goals and if that contributes to another title win.
I have maintained to my pals that I felt we’d win this title despite our poor play, and inability at times to kill teams off. I still believe that even though the last 3 games are going to be incredibly nervy !
On paper, a draw would be the best result tonight, even though I always want Sevco to lose ! My gut tells me they’ll beat the Jambos tonight but we shall see!
Ultimately all that matters is that we prevail and win the title ! Keeping the faith ! HH
If, as a supporter and from an early age, you are fed the nonsense of the Survival/Victimhood Myth / Lie then your ability, if not willingness, to differentiate between the real world and it’s consequences and the fictitious world with it’s imaginary storylines that you inhabit then you have been committed to a lifetime sentence in a cerebral prison for you and your peers, all knowingly fabricated by your elders…
The SMSM bear a huge responsibility for enabling and not calling out SEVCO and the serial manipulators that have given rise to the current crop of intellectually challenged match goers at the DebtDome.