Scott Brown and Keith Lasley

In a season of refereeing controversies Stephen Finnie demonstrated just how bad the standard of officials is in last night’s Celtic-Motherwell game.

The Falkirk official had already shown in the first half that he was out of his depth by blocking a pass from Paddy McCourt and falling to the ground in the final minute.

Finnie looked uncomfortable throughout the match and went on to totally ruin the second half culminating in his decision to send off Scott Brown in the 90^th minute.

The referee and his so-called assistant had as good a view of the incident as the television cameras which showed the Celtic midfielder pulling out of the challenge with the contact coming from Steven Hammell’s boot.

It’s easy to say that it was a needless challenge by Brown but that doesn’t excuse the referee from his error.

Just seven minutes earlier Motherwell’s Steven Lasley could have been sent off but Finnie decided against showing a second yellow card for deliberate handball with Lasley about to head into the Celtic penalty box.

While the Motherwell midfielder enjoyed that break his Celtic counterpart was on the receiving end of a ban that could have serious consequences to his side’s title challenge at Ibrox on Sunday.

Will Finnie suffer?

Will the secretive Referee Committee receive a damaging report on his performance and ensure that it’s a long time before he’s given another match impacting at the top of the table?

Lasley could well have played a part in an equaliser for Motherwell and Brown’s absence could be costly for Celtic at Ibrox.

As Celtic face Rangers on Sunday Finnie will be the fourth official at Sunday’s St Johnstone-Inverness Caley Thistle match.

It’s a long long time since the Celtic-Motherwell fixture was one of the hardest in the game to control.

Getting a fixture like that helps to break referee’s into the big time before they progress towards the more lively SPL matches with the intention of being able to handle a Celtic-Rangers match.

The only consolation from last night is that Finnie won’t be involved at Ibrox on Sunday but having Craig Thomson in charge is hardly a reason to rejoice.

Finnie really lost any sense of control midway through the second half when he handed out four bookings within seven minutes.

Constantly referring to his ear-piece and looking over to the fourth official he was a man way out of his depth.

As Emilio Izaguirre ushered the ball out for a goal-kick Finnie pointed towards the corner flag and booked Lasley.

The Honduran clearly made no contact with the ball- if Lasley earned a yellow card then surely Celtic should have been given a free kick.

From that moment it was obvious to the players and supporters that Finnie had lost it. His decision to red card Brown confirmed that view.

While those decisions won’t create a repeat of the Dougie-Dougie-gate situation earlier in the season it highlights the abysmal standard of officials that Hugh Dallas has encouraged.

The non-football related sacking of the bigot from Bonkle is clearly welcome- developing a system that encourages and rewards referees capable of running a match without taking centre stage will clearly be a long process.

Lennon defends Brown red card

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