Celtic have came out with some impressive fighting talk tonight as the refereeing network threw a comforting blanket around Steve Conroy.
To the surprise of no-one Kenny Clark and Stuart Dougal were quick to defend Conroy’s performance despite both admitting that he had made mistakes with his two biggest decisions.
Getting the throw-ins and corners correct doesn’t really deserve praise, disallowing a goal for no obvious infringement and yellow-carding Kyle Lafferty for a violent potentially leg breaking ‘challenge’ deserves more than sympathy and spin.
Using the Celtic website Marco Fortune discussed the incident that saw his goal disallowed and while cleverly avoiding direct criticism of Conroy made his feeling known with the backing of the club.
“I jumped and never touched the keeper, only the ball,” he said. “My first impression was that I had scored because the referee ran to the centre and then I saw him run back towards the goals, so I didn’t understand.
“At first I thought the goal was offside, but then the referee told me it was for a foul. Sometimes the referee makes mistakes but that’s just football.
“For me I had scored and was really upset, but there was a lot of time to play, so you have to change your mind quickly. For about five seconds I was really upset, but then I just kept on playing.
“I think everyone that plays for Celtic and Rangers wants to score a goal in the derby, particularly if you are a striker and this is my first year here so people will think I should score.
“So I wanted to score and I did but then the referee made his decision.”
Just as Conroy has his network of apologists spinning the story from his side Fortune has came out with some direct comments on the disallowed goal.
That incident was typical of Conroy’s below par performance with the booking of Kyle Lafferty a close second.
Rangers captain David Weir’s arm gestures and blatant dissent at a first half free-kick went unpunished while Lee McCulloch was able to run off and ignore Conroy wanting to speak to him after a second half foul on Aiden McGeady ten yards into the Rangers half.
Celtic have plenty of work to do with improvements required in all areas of the park.
Finding the right attacking combination is crucial to their title prospects, goals don’t come easily or flow freely at the moment.
Having legitimate goals disallowed and finding players fouled in the penalty box without any punishment in key matches makes the task even harder.
Hopefully the decision makers at the SFA are looking closely at their referees from top to bottom to ensure that brave decision making is given a priority ahead of jobs for the boys.
If a picture paints a thousand words then they all say Fortunes lying…
http://i50.tinypic.com/1znxu20.jpg
(copy and paste in browser, or sweep, sweep, sweep it under the carpet and delete it)
The link above is the slo-mo VERSION, that SUITS the slo-mo MIND of the follow-follower Who posted the link ….
A rangers fan Can NEVER Know the difference between "lying" & "The Truth," as it would Mean They'd have to ADMIT They've NEVER Won ANYTHING in Their whole regrettable history ….
Anything rangers have won which COULD Have Felt like Victory must feel hollow-hollow, since it was almost "always" ASSISTED ….
When Celtic Win it's MORE than 100% Unassisted !!!! …. rangers fans inbred hate-filled minds can't SEE that CHEATING & having NO Conscience about it means You MUST be an IDIOT !!!!
Queue "more" WARPED "primitive" denial
The Good news is, WE Are UNHAPPY with a Draw & "they" Are HAPPY with a draw, which Tells Me EVERYTHING I Need to Know about WHICH ONE "IS" The better Team !!!!
Hail Hail !!!!
Here's To ANOTHER 3 in a row !!!!
Anonymous are you on something??? The slowmo clip only shows one thing and that is Fortune getting to the ball before and actually above and behind McGregor. Even as a bluenose you have to admit that it should've stood! Only a complete fool and a bigot would argue otherwise!!!
As a Rangers fan, I do agree that there was not much contact with McGregor and fortune but the same can eb said when Rangers got a goal ruled out this time last year in the old firm match when it was deemed that Boruc had been fouled….as the old saying goes….its swings and roundabouts i'm afraid. there will always be controversial decisions but I am personally happy with a draw with Miller, Novo, Mendes, Naismith, Beasley, Bougherra and Thomson out. It would have been interesting if we were playing Celtic with the full strength squad that we have been winning with lately.
The swings and roundabouts/ even themselves out over the course of a season argument is simply an excuse.
Some things are marginal, some aren't. The marginal decisions may balance out eventually.
What we have watched in the last two Celtic-Rangers games is horrendous errors from referees. At Ibrox Thomson 'didn't see' penalty incidents but did see 'dives' from Shaun Maloney and Mark Wilson who were both booked.
On Sunday Conroy saw things that others didn't.
i)Fortune jumped higher than McGregor who collided with the Celtic striker, it happens all the time in every football match. It wasn't a Celtic penalty but Conroy decided to award a free kick.
ii) Lafferty made a violent attack on Hinkel, it wasn't much different from the attack that ended John Kennedy's football career. Conroy saw it clearly and decided it wasn't a red card. Later in the game Lafferty earned a corner from which Rangers scored.
Neither of those calls were marginal or debateable.
Conroy is clearly not up to refereeing important fixtures and should be left to make his mistakes at a much lower level. Players need protection from violent conduct, Conroy clearly didn't see Lafferty's challenge as violent conduct.
There is no defence for the actions of Lafferty and Conroy on Sunday.
Don't tell me??….the referee is best mates with Walter Smith's wife…..there is no conspiracy theory Celtic fans, some you win and some you lose but lets be honest here, referee mistakes such as Iain Brines and Wullie collum's last seasons in which they chopped a ligitimate goal scored by Aberdeen for being offside meant that Celtic took 3 points in the game intead of 1 point and the following week, a Scott MacDonald goal was allowed to stand when the throw in was illegal due to McGeady placing a foot over the line. Unfortunatley Referres are only human and this will never be resolved until they look at video evidence and even then there is no guarantee they will agree with you…Edoardo's dive against Celtic!
Hey Joe, found a cracking book fur ye tae read at night lol
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celtics-Paranoia-All-Mind-Tom-Campbell/dp/0954743105
Wow Anon 5.1.2010 21.26 Was McGeady's foot over the line taking a throw in? Lifetime ban for that surely!
Anon 5.1.2010 21.43 Thanks for the book, I'm well aware of it, good to have things detailed, just a pity that it needs updated so often. I think the fact that the most successful club in Scotland is only the fourth most successful Scottish club in European competitions tells it's own story.
Not a lifetime ban for the foot over the line but a lifetime ban for being a wee traitor learning his trade in Scotland and playing for Ireland. WHAT A ROLE MODEL FOR YOUNG KIDS, DESERT YOUR COUNTRY and Republic of Ireland did'nt qualify either lol
Don't even try to argue that he never got called up to play for Scotland, he did, Bertie Vogts called him up and Aiden's dad said he was turning it down to play for them….shame cos he aint a bad player