Old Firm

[pete 2,499]

Agree about the "old firm" nonsense.

 

Who'd want them as partners? Lennon's Leith Hibs maybe. Strange transformation there. Up to fifty years ago celtic were Hibs' worst enemies.

 

Yes but now they dominate the SFA. You just have to look at Hibs being allowed to bring in 2 loan players while McGregor is only suspended. How can you get an emergency loan when you have a player suspended? Why do teams have development teams if they cannot even bring in one player for cover. I can see it with a goalkeeper but this is a corrupt and wrong decision.. Is it Gray the full? back I am sure has played CH in the past. I cannot say for sure but I am almost certain if Rangers had asked for this we would of had it rejected.

[der Berliner 3,466]

Well, Rangers are simply a promoted team. No-one really expected us to challenge for the title ... outside Scotland that is.

 

Many people - and some in attendance on here - ridiculed our feat of going through the season unbeaten in League One (or the like). Essentially, our advantage over the fellow teams there was not dissimilar to the Yahoos' this season.

 

In fact, it beggars belief that they did not manage it before during our absence. Likewise, you do wonder whether there has been some switch of focus at Aberdeen and Hearts (though the latter fell apart after Neilson), who essentially waived any title "assault" in their chase for 2nd and/or 3rd place.

 

In any case, by how many points did PSG won the title last season? Against teams of comparatively much higher standing than ... Aberdeen, Hearts or us?

 

Have a look. In their as in the Yahoos' case, money can buy you success.

[boabie 230]

" “When you look at Aberdeen, you’d maybe hanker back to the Eighties, but you don’t have that now — it’s not in the fans’ psyche that you can challenge Celtic. "

 

Was there any hankering going on in the years since the eighties when Rangers were winning the league and cups ?

Maybe instead of "hankering" during the past 4 years Aberdeen should have concentrated on at least coming out to fight in matches against the manks ?

[Bearman 9]

...the chief executive Neil Doncaster says.

 

“As other clubs strive to meet the high standards set by Celtic we would hope that in the long run that would benefit the standards of the league and the wider game.”

 

Barcelona 7 Celtic 0!

[Bearman 9]

On the subject of the term 'Old Firm', I don't have a problem with it, I still say it to folks in discussion and probably will til the day I die!

 

PS: Maybe not on the actual day mind.

[der Berliner 3,466]

Lincoln Red Imps FC 1 - Celtic 0

 

... probably my highlight of their season, closely followed by the Barca debacle.

[Gribz 745]

If the new man is appointed then he should be in straight away and of course working with Murty during the hand over.

[der Berliner 3,466]

After the grand character assasination of Mr. Beaton in the DR and the call for Bobby Madden to referee the game, guess what happens?!

 

Celtic v Rangers: Bobby Madden to referee Old Firm derby

 

Referee Bobby Madden will be the man in charge for the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park on Sunday.

 

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39190248

 

The DR article again ...

 

John Beaton performance in Rangers versus Hamilton tie defied logic and belief - Richmond

 

 

Former whistleblower Charlie Richmond believes Bobby Madden will now get the Celtic v Rangers gig and says refs are unsettled by SFA inconsistency.

By Dailyrecord.co.uk 06:00, 6 MAR 2017

 

 

Every now and again a refereeing performance comes along that takes the breath away and defies logic as well as belief.

Step forward John Beaton. Dear oh dear John.

I praised the whistler to the hilt after his display in the League Cup final involving Celtic and Aberdeen back in October.

However Saturday’s display at Ibrox saw John plummet as low as you can go as an official.

 

 

His body language all day was wrong and he just did not look convincing in anything that he did.

Where do you start with John?

Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham should have been red-carded for deliberate handball outside the box.

There is no disputing that.

In fairness to John that should have been Alastair Mather’s call.

Alastair is a FIFA assistant referee and he should be stepping up there and making that call.

He has to communicate with John and help the referee out there.

The be-all-and-end-all is that the assistant should be in the perfect position to make that decision.

John may have seen the incident from a distance and Hamilton striker Rakish Bingham could have blocked his view.

It is a sending off all day long.

 

 

This is a simple process.

 

 

Alastair should have flagged, John would then have gone across and spoke to him and the Rangers goalkeeper would have been sent off.

The reason Foderingham handles the ball is because he thinks that Bingham is going to nick that away from him.

Foderingham panicked and handled the ball outside the box and it is an ordering off.

That would have changed the game totally.

Rangers would have had to sacrifice a player in that case and it might have been an attacker.

 

 

Then we move on to the penalty incident involving Jon Toral.

Let me say first and foremost I don’t believe it was a spot-kick.

My first impression was that there was not enough in the pull-back on the jersey to merit the contact needed to award a penalty.

Then there is the angle with the wrapping round of the foot but the way Toral goes down is unnatural.

Toral does not fall naturally and it’s as if he has fallen looking for a penalty.

 

 

I don’t think it is enough to award the penalty but in fairness to John he does.

Here is what I look for in a penalty.

If John has given the spot-kick for the pull back then Grant Gillespie who has made no attempt to play the ball should also be red carded.

However if John gives the spot-kick for the trip and Gillespie has made a genuine attempt for the ball then its a penalty and a yellow card.

 

 

John just awarded the spot-kick and nothing else which was baffling to me.

That was my downfall as a referee if there was nay doubt in my mind I never gave penalties.

I was of the mindset that penalties had to be of the stonewall variety to be awarded.

You know straight away and your gut would always tell you about certain decisions.

Later on in my refereeing career I would be commentating in my head and then shout out at major incidents and players would get a fright sometimes when I screamed out that it was penalty.

 

 

Now we come to the major talking point.

Joe Garner’s challenge on Dougie Imrie.

I just cannot understand for the life of me how Garner has stayed on the park.

John also took an eternity to make any kind of decision on it.

John will suffer the wrath for that one.

At the time I winced and even said to myself when I was watching it on the TV: ‘Oof!’

Dougie was very nearly put in the stands.

No wonder Imrie labelled it a ‘leg-breaker’ and that it belonged in the UFC.

If you look at the tackle by the Ayr United defender Scott McKenna’s challenge on Hibs midfielder John McGinn.

 

 

What is the difference.

McKenna walked?

Garner didn’t.

 

 

That is inexplicable and unbelievable.

 

 

There are the kind of decisions by referees that drive supporters crazy.

Fans want referees to be consistent when it comes to major decisions.

Both players have steamrollered in on their opponents and cleaned them out.

 

 

For a man of John’s standing in refereeing my one question to him would be: ‘How is that not a red card’?

 

 

What did he see with regards to that incident.

 

 

I was totally bamboozled by it.

 

 

Goals and decisions change games.

 

 

Garner scored three goals and two of them came after he should have been sent off.

 

 

It was a catalogue of errors and a weekend to forget for John.

Sadly he has taken himself right out of the shop window for the Celtic v Rangers game and I would think that Bobby Madden will be a certainty for that game now.

 

 

Bobby's stock is high at the minute and he will officiate at the UEFA under 21 European Championships in Poland this summer.

I also have to say I was full of admiration and credit for Hamilton boss Martin Canning and the way he handled himself.

He would have been perfectly within his right to slaughter John and his assistants in the press for that display but he chose not to do that.

Finally I was speaking to a couple of referees during the week and some of the officials are not happy with the way that some are getting away with things and others aren’t.

Observers are contacting the SFA with regards to certain officials and querying all sorts of incidents.

The incident of mistaken identity when Hearts player Malaury Martin was booked by Andrew Dallas after the Motherwell player had clipped his own teammates heels at Fir Park is a case in point.

 

 

Had that been a younger referee in charge of his first Premiership game then he would have been slated for not being good enough at his job.

I can tell you that there is a wee bit of unrest in the refereeing fraternity because some are getting away with things that others may not be.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/john-beaton-performance-rangers-versus-9970587

Edited March 7, 2017 by der Berliner

[Darthter 542]

Interesting thing in that article, he spends the 1st half berating Beaton for not sending off Wes.....all the while saying it should have been the linesman's call - couldn't make it up.

[MacK1950 2,278]

Amazing we got that from Richmond when for the first time in a long we got the benefit of wrong decisions but that will never be recognised by the mhedia,the hate campaign goes on and on.