Walkaway ref Steve Conroy believes that his career went downhill after ONE mistake!
Conroy was in charge of the Celtic v Rangers game in December 2010 when he disallowed a perfectly good goal from Marco Fortune and yellow carded Kyle Lafferty for a shocking challenge on Andreas Hinkel.
Despite the evidence to the contrary from Willie Collum and Craig Thomson who have made derby day howlers Conroy believes that his failure to red card Lafferty was the beginning of the end for his top flight career.
Conroy missed out on any SPL appointments last season and despite getting some top flight appointments this term decided to quit refereeing last week.
“People talk about the Fortune incident but I’ve watched it, as you would imagine, hundreds of times and I would still give the foul,” Conroy told The Sun.
“The Lafferty tackle on Hinkel is another matter. I had no idea it was as bad until after the game and all four officials were the same.
“It was Chick Young, who was reporting on the trackside, who broke the news to us when we came out of the tunnel for the warm-down after the game.
“He said something along the lines of ‘Wait till you see that tackle again’. That was the first inkling.
“When I watched it back on TV I was perfectly okay with the Fortune decision.
“With the Lafferty one there’s no doubt about it’s a red card and I missed it. It’s just one of those things. When I watch it back I can see where I am and maybe because it was my first Old Firm game I was further up the field than I should have been.
“If it had been a normal game I’d have been in a different position and had a better angle.
“I saw Tony Mowbray’s reaction on the TV afterwards but the strange thing was that none of the players around me Celtic or Rangers said a thing.
Conroy added: “It disappointed me never to get another one. Did I do anything in the game that precluded me handling one? Absolutely not.
“Did I make mistakes? Yes, with the Lafferty tackle being the main one.
“There were plenty of other people on the park that day who made mistakes Celtic should have won about 18-0 because they were so much on top.
“Regardless of what you think of the way I handled that one, I don’t think anyone would’ve said I couldn’t handle another.”
In the first derby clash of the 2010/11 season Craig Thomson admitted to making a mistake in not awarding Shaun Maloney one of two clear cut penalties and has been given half a dozen derby matches since then.
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It’s just one of those things ……
What a creep, no one complained?? Sickens me when I hear that, firstly it’s not true, secondly it’s a standard cop out used by the brethren, a no win situation for us.
(1) Complain to the ref and we are trouble makers
(2) Dont complain so there’s even the players thought it wasn’t a foul/red card
The fact the he says that he’d give a foul against Fortune says a lot. To begin he is the only person to see a reason to disallow the goal and if he truly thought it was a foul why watch it hundreds of times.
No doubt he ‘ll end up doing a ‘Stuart Dougal’ and make guest appearances in media to have s go at us from time to time.
They just can’t help themselves, another pathetic SFA runt is he!
takes a big man to admit you were wrong and fair play to him for that
Admitting you made a huge mistake immediatley afterwards is one thing, but after this length of time?
Are you kidding? Fifteen months have passed since this incident and as for the remark about hearing what he did from Chick Young, give me a break! Young would have commended him for it! Conroy is no different to most others.
He was a puppet doing what those pulling his strings determined he must. Let’s not forget that the one person who had a pair big enough to stand up and say the refs etc were told what to do, bullied by dallas etc was banned for life!
Craven, the linesan who exposed the corruption was punished for his honesty! An honesty which outed dougie dougie and even he had to wn up to it! A big man to admit the misake after fifteen months? I think not.
put your petulance to one side for a minute and admit that he should be commended for coming out with this! Remember,he was under no obligation to do so..Articles like this do no-one any favours TBH
Has collum ever came out and admit he didnt see proudfoot diving to get penalty ??? As for conroy owning up now is a disgrace.AND,how can he say fortune fouled woodenhead ?
He would have looked a lot bigger if he’d admitted his mistake regarding the Lafferty incident at the time. I showed a video o that tackle to a roomful of Referees from all over the world and none of them thought it warranted less than a straight red card. None of them could see any reason to disallow the Fortune goal either.
the real reson thompson has had6 old firm games and conroy never got another is because of the different religions
paul mcCann
One of the worst performances by a referee I’ve ever seen. Should have been sacked on the spot.
Who cares all in the past. All im looking for is a title party at ibrox.
Jelly n ice cream anyone lolol HH
Is it just me or is there a common theme here.
Disadvantage Celtic Advantage Rearangers.
Although Conroy wasn’t the worst purveyor of the honest mistake, I believe that award falls to Graig Thomsom.
I would honestly get shot of the lot of them their all tainted, they all came through the ranks under Dallas’s stewardship.
Stephen Craven mentioned that dallas and his group of boyfriends bullied the honest guy. For his trouble he was banned for life! Dallas though did a lot of damage before he got too cocky and it blew up in his face. (no pun intended there) 🙂
Aw wit a wid hiv stevie conroy any day over that wee gremlin wullie collum. Hes gettin as bad as hugh dallas the wee mongo
HH
Not so sure. Both terrible examples and both puppets who work to order.
Willie Column is just a bad referee..He does not favour us one way or the other..At a recent huns game, he gave Kilmarnock a dodgy pen and denied the huns a stonewaller and chopped of a legit goal ..He’s not biased, hes just pish.
You lot are sounding like “rabid tarriers” and this site should be re-named “Video, lets talk about Rangers”
i just hope that we win with no sending offs no dramas (aye right!) …
i watched a bit of THEM v arabs last week and they were pretty brutal… elbows escaped another assault and their new boys were in the same mould – kicking anything that moves.
so, i just fear that they’ll drag us into a debacle tomorrow and make us look as bad as THEM.
i’m proud to be a tim, as are my 3 kids, lets just give them a right humping, and give them no excuses.
If we win the league tomorrow we should walk from the park, heads high, get on the bus and go back to Paradise for a celebration. Why let them watch us celebrate?
They have been outed as having cheated us out of many titles in recent years so why should they get to spoilt it all?
I see the cops have already been in again telling us we must not humble them again too! I find it interesting how we have to tiptoe around the feelings of notoriously animalistic thugs who cannot take a beating.
I can’t ever remember cops going to them incase our fans reacted if we looked like we could lose. One rule for their infantile thugs and one for the rest, yet they are the ones who have stolen from the mouths of our old age pensioners and our children. Go figure!
The mans a cheat.
The reality is that this referee had an inherent bias towards Rangers.This has been obvious for many seasons including this year e.g. the penalty awarded to Rangers in “the Aluko incident”.
When McCoist complained bitterly about the SFA decision to suspend the diver and that was the end of Conroy as a Premier league referee.
McCoist was not disciplined for his scathing comments and Conroy was banished as an embarassment.
To admit to the Lafferty incident now is just plainly insulting to Celtic .You will always be remembered as an Ibrox lackey.
Lets face it without their financial cheating and their weekly twelfth man e.g the referee, THEY would have struggled even to win a place in the top six every season never mind trophy’s.
P.S. Watch out for one of the quickest goals in Celtic’s history tomorrow!!
0-4 Celtic
Red card for THEM!