The grey area of putting the ball out of play to allow injured players treatment was highlighted at yesterday’s Celtic Hearts match.
Shortly after Fraser Forster had saved Eggart Jonsson’s penalty Daniel Majstorovic was lying injured in the Celtic penalty box with Hearts in possession, attacking down the left wing.
Cha Du Ri managed to dispossess Andrew Driver before playing the ball to Georgios Samaras who rolled the ball out of play to allow Majstorovic to recover.
With no rules governing this action it has always been a bit of a grey area with players expected to respect the well-being of their fellow professionals. Twice earlier in the match Calum Murray had stopped play to allow Hearts players treatment with Celtic playing the ball back from uncontested drop-balls.
Despite knowing that the ball had been played out to allow Majstorovic treatment Jonsson then launched a long throw into the Celtic box demonstrating that it’s win at all costs for the Edinburgh side even if none of their players are likely to see a draw bonus in their pay packet anytime soon.
Most players will usually return the ball to opponents in such circumstances but perhaps some sort of declaration or statement is needed from managers or the Players Union. Any team playing against Hearts should now be aware that in the closing minutes of a match the Edinburgh side are unlikely to return the ball after gaining possession from an opponents injury.
The last ten minutes of play from yesterday’s match certainly makes for interesting viewing with referee Calum Murray getting very close to losing control of the match with a number of blunders in the closing stages.
While Victor Wanyama’s arm was up as he rose to challenge Ryan Stevenson it would be physically impossible for the defender to have struck the ball with the force that it travelled with off Stephenson’s head.
If Murray felt that it was deliberate handball Wanyama should have been booked or sent off if he was denying the Hearts striker a goalscoring opportunity.
Jonsson twice misplaced the ball on the penalty spot with Samaras having to point that out to Murray who seemed incapable of doing the most basic part of his job having earlier spotted a hand-ball that few others noticed.
Deep into injury time Ryan McGowan cynically slid into the calf of James Forrest in the centre circle and escaped any punishment for a foul more cynical than the 61st minute challenge that had earned him a yellow card.
Murray seemed to be overwhelmed by the incidents late in the match, similar to his display in the February Scottish Cup replay between Celtic and Rangers where he was twice manhandled by Madjid Bougherra without taking any action against the Rangers defender.
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No mention of the celtic players deliberately putting off the hearts player before penalty ….poor poor biased report
Paul,
Can you name me a penalty (that shouldn’t have been given), where an opposition player hasn’t attempted to distract an opponent ?
Your criticism seems almost similar to stating that the report failed to state the linesman had a flag.
Paul fair point but you failed to mention that it was merely a Celtic player pointing out that the ball wasn’t on the penalty spot,correct me if im wrong but has the ball not always been placed directly on the spot if im incorrect and it should be placed elsewhere then ill hold my hands up maybe if the hearts player had put it where it was meant to go then other player would not need to educate them
poor poor biased post from yourself
Samaras was making a point, as the same thing happened against Rangers and Mcgreggor, Samaras was ignored by the referee until a second request by Forster that the ball be placed properly, Mcgreggor and Rangers were praised for for their clever, cheeky, tactics, Samaras and Celtic are slammed for their unsporting, unfair behaviour. Now you do the math.
Murray was a joke forrest was kicked off the park all day and the penalty award was a joke how the refs can put in displays like this and nothing happens to them is shocking if it wasn’t for the keeper we would have been robbed. Hail hail
Paul I think the Celtic players are entitled to insist the ball is “ON THE SPOT” after such a poor decision and poor refereeing, sorry officials performance last night.
It’s just sour grapes because it was a wonderful save and justice was done.
Celtic thoroughly deserved to win the match having scored a stunning goal and out played Hertz for most of the match.
HH 1NL YNWA 😀
In the last few weeks, we’ve had, Butcher and McCoist, moaning about a lack of fairness in the game, after yesterdays events should Lenny follow suit, nah, don’t want another strike, do we.
And Dunfermlines Mcintyre, who said Alukos penalty dive was a joke and the referee had been conned, he was subsequently proven correct, and banned for 2 games. Butcher and Mcoist are let off scot free. Strangely the one thing they have in common is they are both ex Gers players.
Do the Hearts players deserve no credit for making a game of it? They came to Celtic Park unpaid and frustrated at the treatment their employer had meted out to them. According to all the pundits before the match, their morale was so low they wouldn’t try a leg. Instead of meekly submitting, they did their level best to get a result for their fans. Sometimes teams other than Celtic are worthy of a bit of praise.
They do deserve credit where due, they put in a hard shift and showed real grit, it is down to the referee that they were allowed to cross the line at times.
True Dave they do deserve some credit, if they tried as hard every week they might have more points.
Hearts got what they deserve- nothing- they time wasted and kicked anything above grass
The Heart players deserve a wee of bit credit for coming to play when they aren’t getting paid but I’m sure if it was any other team in the same situation the players would play, I’d certainly hope so anyway.
They came for the fans. As one of Big Jocks famous quotes says, Football without fans is nothing.
HH
Unfortunately Murray is a sad reminder of the very low level of refereeing standards in the SPL. Though its plain for all nuetrals to see that the bias and bigotry isn’t going away, some of Murrays calls were mindboggling.
As for the cardboard cut out linesman standside, how on earth can this ineptness go un-noticed and un-punished? Is it any wonder we are the laughing stock of the game in other countries?
Murrays attempt at a late penalty for Hearts was shameful, yet it blew up in his face.
We can only hope he is never in Paradise again unless he pays for his ticket. The level of the Scottish game is suffering because of clowns like him, and the tactics used by Hearts.
I like you Celtic fans, your enthusiasm and loyalty to your team is exemplary. Unfortunately you have a tendency to lapse into self-righteous indignation. The only time i was ever assaulted at a football match was back in the late fifties when a bunch of Celtic fans set about me, first for cheering a Hearts goal and shortly thereafter for failing to cheer a goal for Celtic. I didn’t then, and haven’t since, tarred all Celtic fans with the same brush. Live and let live guys, without opponents trying their best to beat you, you wouldn’t have a game.
I smell sh-te.
Dave I like most Celtic fans didn’t have a problem with Hearts tactics of trying to defend well and hit on the break it was the wasting time the weak referee let them away with that was annoying as you would probably admit this Hearts side is as poor as they have been in 20 years + and because of your financial situation it will only get worse which is unfortunate as it is always one of the games i look forward to every season because i expect it to be a hard game which like Saturday makes it all the more fun when we win it
Celtdavy, don’t be too sure that this poor Hearts team won’t improve. Our U19s are doing well and we have several great young players out on losn and ready to step up after January. These are lads that have come up through the ranks at Riccarton not mercenaries looking for an easy life in the SPL.
I dont think Murray is such a poor ref as the article would sugggest.
As far as unsporting behaviour is concerned and stopping play for injuries is concerned I was more concerned about the game being stopped in the first half when it was clearly NOT a head injury and as it transpired, clearly NOT an injury at all!
There are a lot of interesting comments on here today with regards to Calum Murray’s performance on Saturday. Yes I agree his decision about the penalty was wrong however I dont agree that he is a poor referee, look back at some of the more difficult games he has had to deal with and he has made a lot of positive decisions, many on Celtics behalf. There are many a lot worse than him working for the SFA at the moment and everyone has a bad day at work at times. Just so happened his was Saturday but the bhoys did us all proud in the end. Hail Hail