Tommy Gemmell has slaughtered Euan Norris’s performance in the Celtic v Hearts Scottish Cup semi-final.
With most attention turned on Neil Lennon the display of Norris has largely been overlooked.
The decision to award Hearts a penalty is questionable on a number of grounds and contrasts strongly with the leniency shown to Ian Black during the first half.
The Hearts midfielder caught Joe Ledley with a shocking over the ball attack on the Celtic players shin then went unpunished for a deliberate hand-ball that should have seen him ordered off.
Gemmell suffered from many dodgy decisions during his Celtic playing days and is furious about some of the recent calls that have gone against his old club.
“I have every sympathy for Neil,” he told The Sun. “Some of the decision-making by referees in recent games have been questionable, to say the least.
“How Euan Norris could award Hearts a penalty kick on Sunday is beyond me.
“It has to be intentional when the ball strikes a player on the hand or arm. That’s the law. Joe Ledley wasn’t even looking at the shot coming in from the Hearts player. He was turning away.
“If he’s that good at stopping shots while not even looking at the ball he should become a goalkeeper!
“There was an incident in the first half when Ian Black, already booked, blatantly pushed the ball away with his hand.
“The referee gave Celtic a free-kick, so he obviously believed the incident was intentional and not an accident.
“If that’s the case, the referee has to show the Hearts player another yellow and that would have led to him being sent off. I would never advocate players being ordered off, but those are the laws.
“If the match official deems it a deliberate handball the player has to be cautioned. Simple as that.
“So you can see it would have been easy for Neil to feel a sense of injustice. But he must keep his temper in check.
“There are times and places to let your feelings be known and running 70 yards onto the pitch to confront the ref is not the way to do it.
“Neil has a massive job on his hands and he doesn’t need the distraction of continually being called up in front of the SFA to explain his actions.
“He has to learn to count to ten and if that’s not any good, then count to 20. And keep on going if he still feels anger. It’s easy for me to say, but I have been there, seen it and done it. Neil will have to learn the hard way.”
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I think what Tommy is diplomatically trying to say “Norris is a cheat”.
Well…….. norris is a cheat!
Well said Tommy Gemmell. Celtic should be doing everything in their power to find out why Norris made that decision. He’s a grade one ref who either doesn’t know the most basic of laws, or who chose to ignore the laws for his own reasons.
I 100% agree with you but we all know we will never get any answers. They all gang up & as was said try to put all the attention on Lenny & blame him.
Couldn’t agree with Tommy. I was furious with the decision making. Lets not forget it was in the 91st minute and you’d have to be 100% (surely) to give a PK in those circumsatnces.
Lennon has to breathe and count to 10 at times granted, but anyone (h*ns) that say they wouldn’t of reacted the same way is simply a lying b@$+R0id$!!!
There is simply no give when it comes to NL now because of his previous and his general relationship with the dark side and the corrypt SFA lol.
They self richeous pr!cks from Govan that continuously point their fingers at the East end of Glasgow want to get their own “big house” in order. The hypocrisy is astounding, but then again do we really expect anything less?
We definitely get a raw deal from referees – I’m in little doubt about that. However, I don’t really think it’s helpful when people talk about a version of the rules that don’t exist…Gemmell says: “If the match official deems it a deliberate handball the player has to be cautioned. Simple as that”.
That is not the rule. It has to be deliberate to be a free kick, it is not an automatic booking. Read this article:
http://www.getreading.co.uk/blogs/goalpost/s/2041079_when_handball_means_yellow
It’s amazing how many people talk about the letter of the law when they have clearly never read the rules.
any foul (not to mention the first was assault/violent conduct) after a caution is a bookable offence, now take your fairytale rule book back to neverneverland & then go blow some blue smoke out your other….
Maybe PMcG should read his own link as it quite clearly backs TG, “yellow card is listed as”Handles the ball to prevent an opponent gaining possession or developing an attack” This can happen at any time and in any place but is more likely when it stops a pass getting through for a likely attack”. a perfect description of the bookable offence that the referee chose to ignore in Black’s case.
P McG
by the very article you point out it states:
“The next handball that warrants a yellow card is listed in the guidelines as ‘handles the ball to prevent an opponent gaining possession or developing an attack.’ This can happen at any time and in any place but is more likely when it stops a pass getting through for a likely attack.”
so goin by the article you posted and the definition from that referee, blacks was a second yellow as it stoped celtic developing an attack or gaining possession!! so again we have an example of norris applying the laws of the game to suit himself!!!
Good point, Jebus. Was going to say the same thing myself. This is why the referee was right not to book Big Dan Majstorovic for an irrational handball last season – he was nowhere near any opposing players and his handling the ball didn’t prevent an opponent gaining possession. Lots of people commented at the time – wrongly – that he was lucky not to be booked. On the other hand (pun intended!) Black SHOULD have been booked, as he prevented the ball reaching a Celtic player further up the wing during an attack.
go on youself tommy finally a x-player stands by the club and has a go at someone other than neil lennon. HAIL HAIL
Jebus – fair point, I was maybe being a bit pedantic. I just get annoyed by people who are paid to play/comment on the game and don’t know the rules. The number of times you hear the phrase “by the letter of the law” applied to something that isn’t actually mentioned in the rules is amazing.
The thing with bookings and red cards is that often it is a judgement call by the referee (e.g. was the tackle careless or reckless?). This is where the referees are quite “clever” in Scotland – the decisions that they give against us/for other teams are often ones that they can argue either way so to an outside observer it looks like we are being petty/biased in our reading of the incidents or that we are making more of them than we should. Of course, we watch our team over the whole season so we can see the skewed approach that referees take. I can totally understand Lennon’s reactions – I think we’d all struggle to maintain our composure in his shoes.
As Martin O’Neill said it’s not enough just to be better than Rangers we have to be miles better than them. And as Jock Stein said we have to score so many goals that they can’t chalk them all off.
Next year we have to go into games with this kind of mindset as you can be sure (whether Rangers exist or not) the refs will be doing their best for them. Thankfully I can see us getting stronger – especially with a bit of squad trimming, a couple of additions and a manager with a year’s more experience.
look at the referee,s decisions over 3 of the biggest games in any season,old firm game(in the midden)league cup final,scottish semi final,,all decisions are madntssive which dictate the outcome of any match,all decisions are given against us to prevent bragging rites over the queens club,but they couldnt take any shine of the FACT that we are the CHAMPIONS we are the best by a country mile,,only bad point is we were cheated out of a treble by biased refs and an sfa that shits itsel to punish refs that blatantly follow there masters example