Euan ‘spot-kick’ Norris was once again the key figure as Celtic lost 2-1 to Hearts in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup at Hampden.
With the scores level in the 90th minute the notorious Lanarkshire referee jumped into the spotlight by pointing to the penalty spot after Marius Zaliukas shot at Joe Ledley’s arm from two yards range.
To no-one’s surprise Norris pointed to the penalty spot with Craig Beattie converting to book Hearts place in the final against Edinburgh rivals Hibs.
Controversial penalty decisions are the trademark of the way that Norris handles matches with Rangers benefiting from five penalties in a three matche spell from Norris.
In November 2010 Norris awarded Rangers two penalties in a 3-2 win at Kilmarnock, in his next Rangers appointment Steven Whittaker scored the winner from the penalty spot.
At the start of this season Norris awarded Rangers two second half penalties in their 2-0 win at Inverness to the anger of Terry Butcher.
This season Norris has had just one Celtic SPL match, the 2-0 win at St Johnstone in December, but has refereed both semi-finals at Hampden.
In next season’s Champions League qualifiers Celtic’s matches will be refereed by UEFA appointed officials.
Rangers v CELTIC Glasgow Cup Final, kick off 7pm, Ibrox April 16
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GUTTED.
Unbelievable the decision was a joke fuck the SFA
I wonder if we will see either picture in tomorrow’s rags…..naw didn’t think so either.
When will this ever end…?
There is no way , in the name of justice, that a penalty can be given at one end…then refused at the other…despite both incidents being the same.
You have to ask why….?
I think we know….
I wish we could get out of this corrupt set up.
PS: We also under-achieved….again.
Sick of hearing Celtic didn’t play well and therefore it doesn’t matter because they didn’t deserve to win.
Teams win games all day long when they are not playing well, we are never afforded that opportunity. It is particularly in close games that you cannot afford referees to be making “honest mistakes”.
Hopefully with Rangers in the bottom division next season the SPL referees won’t have anyone to impress and the honest mistakes can spoil the lower leagues for a change and give us a well deserved break from it.
That will never happen in this country.We are never going to get a fair shake here.With every respect to the islamic community in this bigoted dump that claims to be a modern country,we are viewed to be way down the social spectrum here.There is no way that a player of islamic persuasion would be villified for a silent prayer to his God,but when a catholic player makes the sign of the cross there is hell let loose.Enough is enough,over to the celtic board to get us out of here.
Have to say that is the most nonsensical thing I have ever read, many players bless themselves every week, a number of hearts players did at the weekend, no problem whatsoever, get a grip such hysteria makes us look stupid
.
the penalty shouldnt have mattered in the first place, if ki had scored with the 2 headers,and stokes had taken his chance, game should have been dead and buried,but as a celtic fan you always get this gut feeling , same old same old , happening for years , and will be happening in the future,, keep the faith hail hail
Did I just see “under achieved”? No way man. Average age of 23, in any other circumstances they would be over achieving, which they ate. Dissapointment will make them even more stronger. God bless Lenny
Please do not lump the huns pens in with todays disgraceful decision, its got hee haw to with the arguement and imo mearly shows we bother too much abt them, Todays pen given to hearts was technically correct but the decision not to award us 1 for the exact same technical infringement is was and will always be cheating in my eyes , just had an arguement with a fellow cab driver who blames lenny and the bhoys for “blowing it ” what a plum ,celtic were denied by a corrupt referee
We should have done better however the ref was a blatant cheat.
So corrupt.
Hearts penalty seemed harsh to me. How can you give a penalty when there is so little distance between ball and arm.
As for the one at the other end; well I was there so I couldn’t see it. Hampden is a trully awful stadium for spectators. You either have no angle on the match or you need binoculars to watch the game.
I’ve since heard that our goal was offside so maybe it did even itself out similar to the Rangers goal and Hooper being flagged offside in the December game.
Very disapointed after today.
Felt we did not start well and the back four looked nervous all day. We persistently tried to play down the left when all the room was on the right. Lustig looks good going forward but not so clever on defence. Kelvin Wilson looks like an accident waiting to happen. If the Polish guy Fojut, who we’ve got on a pre-contract, is as bad as him then next season is going to be very long indeed.
I thought the midfield did reasonably well today but Ki should have buried the second half header certainly. I don’t know about the first half one becuase I was there and Hampden is ………………….. well you know the rest.
I’ve just watch Chelsea v Spurs semi. Why can Samaras not put himself about like Drogba. He always seems to bring the ball down for a defender to take it off him and, percentage wise, he must be the point at which our attacks break down the most.
Where was Hooper supposed to be playing?
In the first half he was all over the place but virtually never in the final third.
Finally Neil Lennon; we all know he is an articulate man but getting caught up in situations that he is never going to win is doing him no good. Instead he should be taking the time to put together coherent arguments and asking the media if they can ask questions because under our draconian rules he can’t. If that means sending out Thompson or Mjalby after the game then so be it.
Yet again we’ve been beaten by a referee….the annoying thing is that if you complain, you get punished further….perhaps refs should actually learn the rules of the game instead of trying to suck up to their masonic bosses..!!
As soon as I heard Norris was officiating I KNEW there would be no Celtic win . That “thing” is a disgrace.
Have to say we were poor and as a result we did not beat a very ordinary team,same as the Killie final.our goal being offside hardly rates a mention above which iI find strange, 2 sitters from Ki is thereason we lost, also the centre back position continues to be a huge problem, this needs sorted pre season.
Fucking ripping. 24 hours later. Norris and the SFA are a fucking joke. And then to have Dallas sticking his bib in, he should get to fuck, the cretin.
I also wish hugh dallas would just crawl back under his rock, he is hardly what you would call impartial, the whole situation reeks as usual, these refs murray collum ,noris brines are awfull simple , how was black not sent off disgrace as usual.
Dallas is a scumbag of the first order..that’s a given…But what’s more disturbing to me is the fact that the good old Scottish Meeja….decide he’s the one to give his opinion.
Well in case any of you Laptop Loyal dicks are reading this…
No one, outside the SFA , the Laptop Loyal and members of the Dalls household …gives a flying feck about what he thinks….
ON ANY SUBJECT….
Piss off ya cretin.