Steven McLean and Alan Muir have been left out of this weekend’s top flight matches.
Both men will have to settle for four official duty with McLean watching from the technical area as Euan Anderson takes charge of Dundee v Aberdeen while Muir will have the same role at Ochilview where Stenhousemuir host Queens Park in the play-off final for a place in League One.
McLean and Muir were the two officials closest to Josh Meekings handball incident against Celtic in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.
In the four rounds of SPFL fixtures since their nightmare at Hampden neither official has been given a fixture in the top half of the Premiership.
Whether they are being demoted or have been marked down after their performances in the Hampden clash is hard to tell but with Crawford Allan taking charge of the St Johnstone v Celtic match and Anderson refereeing the Dens Park match between Dundee and Aberdeen it does seem that McLean and Muir are slipping down the rankings.
John Beaton will also be spared whistle duty at the weekend which is probably just as well after his experience in Saudi Arabia.
Salem Al Dawsari was red carded for head-butting Beaton with the referee speaking out about the incident to the SFA website:
“It’s safe to say this kind of thing has never happened before and I’m sure many referees have gone through entire careers without something like that to deal with,” Beaton said.
“More than anything, I’m happy that I handled it the right way because it’s something that comes as a complete surprise and you can’t really prepare for an incident like that.
“The important thing in these situations is to keep calm, make the correct decision – which was to issue a red card – and then resume the match.”
Sunday’s Premiership play-off quarter-final at Ibrox will be refereed by Kevin Clancy.
