Why didn’t Willie Collum send off Andrew Davies for penalty on Griffiths?
Less than three minutes into the game he faced the nightmare scenario of being turned by Leigh Griffiths as the striker created space from a great pass by Virgil van Dijk.
As the Celtic striker prepared to shoot at goal Davies crashed into Griffiths sending the striker over in a heap.
Penalty Celtic but no punishment for Davies, not even a yellow card.
According to the Laws of the Game, published on the SFA website, included among the sending off offences is ‘denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick’.
Collum was able to give a penalty, for reasons best known to himself he decided not to red card Davies.
I doesn’t matter if it’s the first game of the season, if it’s in the opening minutes or if the referee feels that the player has been punished enough by awarding a penalty.
Griffiths was through on goal, facing upto Scott Fox and as the laws state a sending off offence when ‘denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal’.
Fortunately Griffiths scored from the penalty but had to be substituted after 19 minutes unable to run off the injury he took from Davies challenge.
Later on in the match Collum issued a yellow card to Craig Gordon for a foul on Jackson Irvine outside the penalty box.
It was a borderline decision on whether it was a red card or yellow card offence. At the speed Irvine was running at it’s unlikely that he would have had an obvious goalscoring opportunity with Scott Brown and Virgil van Dijk racing back to cover.
While there are grounds for debate over whether Gordon should have received a red or yellow card it is clear cut in the case of Davies. A sending off is the only punishment for his offence, Collum didn’t apply the laws of the game.
