Craig Thomson will referee Sunday’s Rangers v Celtic clash at Ibrox.
It is the third derby running that Thomson has refereed highlighting the lack of fresh talent coming through the system.
Iain Brines, Willie Collum and Calum Murray are the only other SPL refs to have taken charge of the game in the past but have all been overlooked for this appointment.
Thomson refereed the League Cup Final between the two clubs in March at Hampden then the final SPL meeting of the season between the teams at Ibrox in May.
Sunday’s match will be the seventh meeting of the teams this year with Thomson about to referee the fixture for the fourth time having also refereed the January 2 meeting of the clubs.
Collum will be the fourth official at Ibrox.
good, apart from that hearts game where lennon and ledley were sent off he’s been the only consistant and fair ref in the league
best of a bad (biased) bunch!!
Thomson is unfortunately, the only honest ref we have in Scotland. Collum being fourth official is not good though. You can bet he will try to intimidateNeil Lennon and the rest of the backroom staff throughout the game. Collum is a cheat and almost as biased as Dallas was/is.Collum really is such an arrogant little man that he cares not what others think when he makes his biased calls against Celtic. This said, the condecending attitude shown by Muir on the weekend was also a disgrace. He was clearly seen on television saying tom Kelvin Wilson, “be quiet, I am talking”. These guys want respect. Make no mistake, respect can be earned but with condecending traits like that, they will never be respected and never should be. So much for change!! The refs want the change okay, but only a one-sided change. Most of them are still scumbags like Dallas.
Craig Thomson is a very good referee.
Unfortunately in the eyes of Fifa, Ledleys tackle at Tynecastle was a red card, so he got that one right, even though it was just a good honest hard tackle.
Hopefully the bhoys put in a good performance in Madrid to ennsure there is dent to the confidence going into the Old Firm.
I would start Bangura against Rangers as he is completely unknown to them, and his pace/directness could do damage!
Correct me if am wrong is Thomson not the same referee that denied us two penalties at ibrokes and booked malony and Wilson for diving. Thomson might be a step up from Collum but honest give me a brake. Who was the ref that allowed bougera a further 7 tackles on Robbie Keane after booking Bougera in the first half.
IF Celtic get their tactics & team right the referee won’t matter. This game will be decided PRIOR to the kickoff…getting the balance of the side correct and putting the team on the park in the proper frame of mind.
Rangers have definitely gone down the O’Neill route with big strong guys at the back & Lafferty / Jelavic will look to cause us problems by dropping off the back post for crosses. We have to be aware, most certainly cannot allow the number of cheap crosses we gave to St. Mirren or else we will lose heavily. Big game for both full backs and indeed our central defence / keeper…time to really step up to the plate.