Despite a flurry of honest mistakes from Bobby Madden Celtic defeated Motherwell 3-0 to rack up their tenth consecutive win in the SPFL.
A double from Kris Commons and an own goal from Stephen McManus stretched Celtic’s lead at the top of the table to 13 points over Aberdeen.
2013 was a year to forget for the Lanarkshire whistler but despite the benefits of a five-star training break in La Manga with fifty fellow officials he turned in a dismal performance from virtually the first whistle.
A second half red card for Anthony Stokes is likely to be the most talked about incident but there was a series of other decisions that made supporters wonder how Madden has made it through the ranks to the pinnacle of the Scottish game.
The most incredible decision occurred late in the first half when Motherwell ‘keeper Gunnar Nielsen touched a dropping ball over the crossbar. Corner almost everyone in the stadium anticipated but Madden pointed for a goal-kick indicating that the keeper had touched the ball after it had gone over the woodwork!
Minutes later Madden was awarding Motherwell a corner after an Ian Vigurs fizzed a low shot across goal with Fraser Forster adamant that he hadn’t touched the ball.
Rounding off his first half misery Madden opted out of red carding Nielsen after the keeper sent Stokes tumbling to the ground in the penalty box. Stokes was shaping up to go round the keeper and while it would have been a tight angle for the striker to hit the net from it was certainly a goal scoring opportunity denied.
There were numerous other incidents throughout the match that illustrated that Madden doesn’t have the ability to read the game and apply the laws.
Celtic fans are often accused of being bad losers blaming honest mistakes when their side fails to win.
Not for the first time this season the club has been on the wrong end of some horrendous decisions, last month Stevie McLean failed to award two penalties in the corresponding  match at Fir Park when Stevie Hammell handled a cross and Teemu Pukki was chopped down. McLean awarded a corner for Hammell’s handball and booked Pukki for simulation despite clearly having his legs taken from him.
Finding referees isn’t an easy task but with Madden clearly way out of his depth questions should be asked about how he has worked his way through the system to be given the task of refereeing matches among the top teams in the country.
We have had poor referee’s ever since football went professional, all clubs have suffered bad decisions and will continue to do so at all levels in future.
I’m all for transparency & officials speaking after the game, would actually prefer if they were mike’d up ala rugby officials so fans could hear why certain decisions are made during the game.
But the biggest concern for me is that the club continue to progress, build for the future and make the most of our huge advantages over everyone else in Scotland. We should be building a dynasty ON & OFF the park at all levels to keep us at the forefront and capable of making some sort of impact in Europe. While our youth system is decent, it could be much improved – better coaching / scouting and more opportunities to progress. Putting players out on loan is merely tinkering with things, will they get the game time, will they learn from quality coaching, play in a similar system ? Why don’t we use our financial muscle to simply buy one of the many lower league clubs and install a full Celtic ‘B’ side as so many top clubs abroad enjoy ?
Williebhoy,
I agree that the club’s progression must and always should be the primary focus for everyone connected to Celtic and no doubt there are things within our youth set-up and scouting network that can be improved upon.
For example taking a leaf out of Barca’s and (dare I say it) Ajax book regarding how youth players are coached, with much emphasis on technique, movement and playing it on the deck as often as they can. That same style is taught at all levels throughout those clubs so by the time any player makes it to the first team they are comfortable and accomplished with that style of football. It’s about having a football philosophy and that’s something we have to look at.
As important as all that is it is vitally important that we also have a high standard of refereeing to go with it. For instance given some of the rash challenges Madden allowed to go unpunished yesterday players could have been forgiven for rushing their play and getting rid of the ball asap and by whatever means necessary for fear of injury. That sort of officiating doesn’t exactly encourage a composed passing game based on technique, but worse still is when he punishes one team for it (Stokes) but fails to punish the opposition for the same behaviour.
My point is we shouldn’t just seek improvement from within our own club and hope everything else takes care of itself, it’s about raising standards throughout our game and that includes referees being promoted because they are competent and fair and not because they happen to be favourites of certain high ranking individuals within the Referees Association or the SFA.
Hail Hail.
Have already displayed my disgust at both Madden and Norris. Both of them have no idea of what is required to referee a football match. I think they got their qualifications from the free gift at petrol stations .How the refs that watch games(although most wont learn much where they watch ibrox) I dont know . How are they still in a job?