Referee Conroy finally admits to Lafferty 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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