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.