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Sorry the hardest word, well said Jim Jefferies

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Congratulations to Jim Jefferies for standing up and being man enough to retract his comments about Saturday’s decisions.

It takes a big man to say sorry, there are very few in football who do that, but Jefferies has apologised for his outburst.

The decisions on Saturday were marginal, they weren’t clear cut and human error is unavoidable. The human error on Saturday was from Jefferies, not the officials.

At neither of Celtic’s opening goals was there any offside.

In the heat of the match and after seeing his side hit the post it’s easy to see why Jefferies got upset at Celtic’s first goal but in his heart of hearts, ouch, he should have known that the decision was borderline and held back from further comment until he had reviewed the incident for himself.

After viewing the incident again today the Hearts boss said: “At the angle I was at, he looked offside.  We don’t have monitors down at the dugout and everyone in our dugout thought he was offside.

“It was then relayed to me that some pictures showed he was offside but I have seen other footage and it shows he was marginally onside, and I accept that.

“I can’t take back what I said, I can only apologise and I spoke to Hugh Dallas (head of referee development at the SFA) and asked him to apologise to Francis Andrews on my behalf, as I don’t have his number.

“But I never criticised the performance of Willie Collum, I just said that I would be reporting him for the way he spoke to me.”

Jefferies will still be asked to explain his outburst to the SFA, it would be good if the SFA were to come out in future and admit to mistakes from their own officials.

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0 comments

  • Patman says:

    Fair play te him, still a twat though!

  • Max says:

    To little to late in my opinion!

    His behaviour at the time was a disgrace, his behaviour at H/T was by all accounts a disgrace and his coments after the game were a disgrace, he deserves having the book thrown at him!

    His outragious action at the incident and probably more so at half time, when he threatened a match official with HIM taking action against them, had a profound effect on the second half.

    Hearts players got away with murder through out the the second half, fouling, jersey pulling and more so with off-side decisions going against Celtic culminating in big Sammi getting a perfectly good goal chopped off.

    These decisions were a direct result of the insecurities and added pressure placed, imo intentionally, in the heads of the match officials.

    If Hearts had come back from 2-0 down in the second half, I doubt we would be hearing any apologies from Jeffries, I think he would be to busy congratulating himself on a job well done!!

    Would anyone accept an apology for last seasons ‘honest mistakes’ after the damage has been done?

    Jeffries apologised for one reason and one reason only, he made a total backside of himself and this apology is no more than an exercise in damage limitation!

    Had he been playing the manky mob there would have been no infantile tantrum, (if you act like a 2yr old Jim, people will treat you like one), if he was playing the manky mob he would’ve been to busy congratulating them on their fantastic performance!!

  • Joe says:

    Well not only has his credibility risen dramatically, he has made some huns in the media eat their words!! There were so many of them on the bandwagon like flies on horse droppings! Bhoy, I bet they feel pretty dumb about now!Well done Jim Jeffries. I tip my hat to your honesty.

  • joe says:

    fair play to him for saying sorry but i dont think any one would take any notice

  • Pat Wan says:

    I would wish that JJ’s retraction would enforce the same from the media who jumped on the bandwagon, won’t hold my breath though.

    That being said, I can’t get the picture of JJ dancing a victory jig on the park following the Killmarnock game against us in the Seville year, and yet this was at the end of a game where his team was beaten 4-0, tell me what was this credible and repentant man celebrating?

    Why have none of his teams been cheated out of points against Rangers, why does he rarely if ever say “Celtic” and instead refer to us as “They or Them” why is Celtic Park always “Here or There” and never Celtic Park, he has no problem saying Ibrox in any of his interviews.

  • Carntyne says:

    Yes, it does take a big man to admit it when shown to be wrong, but in this case there must be a suspicion that he is only admitting to his stupid remarks because of the video evidence.

    If this was a one off incident you could shrug the shoulders and say anyone can make a mistake, but Jefferies has a long history of previous when it comes to complaining about anything and everything in games against Celtic, but only when Hearts don’t win.

    A dyed in the wool Hun!

  • Max says:

    Think about a game almost a year to the day (19-9-09), the huns playing Kilmarnock and mendes gets sent off.
    ‘wattie’ turns into the cantankarous auld ned he is and goes ballistic!
    The thuggish intimidation on that mans face was there for all to see, pure and utter aggression and hatred, something for the fans to look up to!
    ‘wattie’ is then sent to the stand.
    Later ‘wattie’ apologises citing he though killie players were trying to get mendes sent off.
    ‘wattie’ was re-assured by the then killie manager that the “killie boys” were infact trying to stop the ref from sending mendes off, for some inexplicable reason!
    Later on ‘wattie’ apologised, in another attempt at damage limitation, as though this in some way made it OK for him to act like a scumbag thug corner boy infront of every football supporter in the land, and that would include easily influenced young lads watching how you should behave as a pro.
    Then the “killie boys” manager comes out in defence of the ever endearing ‘wattie’, telling the press it was all just a wee misunderstanding!

    Even though boyd escaped a booking for a brutal challenge on Wright, who had to have treatment for a head wound and was later booked for a “sything tackle” on Clacy who had to come off due to an injury to his elbow sustained in the attack..sorry tackle.
    Meaning of course the huns could very well have been down to ten men, an important decision in a 0-0 draw I would think.

    The ‘killie boys’ manager actually praised rangers after the match and had to say of ref Conroy, “SOME of the booking weren’t warranted, other than that the ref had a good game”.
    I wonder what bookings the “killie boys” manager was refering to?

    10 points for naming “the killie boys” manager during that game!!!

    You learn well grasshopper!!

    Hun to the bone!!

  • Max says:

    Sorry that of course should have read ‘9 men’.

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