Craig Thomson will be in charge of Celtic’s Co-Operative Cup semi-final with Aberdeen on January 29.
It will be Thomson’s third Celtic match in a month having been the man in the middle for the SPL fixtures away to Rangers and Hibs.
Thomson was also in charge of the Hearts-Celtic match in November which saw Neil Lennon ordered from the dug-out which resulted in a six match touchline ban.
The other semi-final will be refereed by Willie Collum despite his abysmal performances this season.
Those appointments would point towards Callum Murray being in charge of the Rangers-Celtic Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox the following week.
Steve Conroy is the only other referee to have taken charge of a Celtic-Rangers match but after his performance last January when he disallowed a ‘goal’ from Marco Fortune and failed to send off Kyle Lafferty for his lunge on Andreas Hinkel he hasn’t been given any matches involving Celtic or Rangers this season.
Murray has been in charge of one previous Celtic-Rangers game, in May last year, when goals from Lee Naylor and Fortune earned Celtic a 2-1 win.
Joe,
Do you think they will give a debut ref the cup game at Ibrox?
I’ve noticed recently that debut OF refs tend to be given a Celtic Park game. Collum, Murray and Conroy all made their OF debuts at CP.
Is this a trend that goes back further do you know? What would be the reasons for this…? Ibrox considered more a cauldron of hate than CP?
Stephen
Good point Stephen
I hadn’t noticed that refs tend to get their first derby match at Celtic, the last three Celtic-Rangers games have been the first derby match for each ref.
The Dallas problem is going to run for a few more years until a new crop of referees emerge on merit rather than being the type that Dallas liked- see Willie Collum for exhibit A.
With the way that Dallas messed things up I can’t see a new ref getting any Celtic-Rangers game this season, which leaves us with three to choose from with only Thomson having handled more than one.
There should be 5 or 6 refs who’ve handled a Celtic-Rangers game to pick from, the better refs get them more frequently and new emerging refs added to the roster.
There is potential for 5 more Celtic-Rangers games this season- whoever selects the refs will be in for some sleepless nights!