Blundering John Beaton will take charge of Celtic’s match against Motherwell on Saturday.
The Lanarkshire based ref kicked the season off in nightmare fashion when he awarded Hearts a penalty against Celtic in the opening match with the cheating jambo later given a two match suspension- after scoring from the penalty spot.
After the game Brendan Rodgers told Radio Scotland: “We could have been two or three up then there’s a dubious penalty, in fairness to the referee, it was a mistake, he was big enough to admit that.
“We had to show character and mentality in the second half to come back. The players accept the risk we put into the game in the last 20 minutes, being super offensive getting attacking players on the field then we get the goal on a quick counter attack, I’m delighted that the players got the reward for their bravery.”
PENALTY! Controversial penalty call for Hearts? But nothing dubious about Jamie Walker’s finish. Hearts 1 Celtic 1 pic.twitter.com/FkBsmorNI7
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) August 7, 2016
It has never been explained how Beaton discovered that he had made a mistake, with a clear view of the incident he could wait to point to the penalty spot without consulting his assistant.
Beaton’s season hasn’t really improved with Mark Warburton picking up a one match touchline suspension for using disrespectful language after the award of a late free kick to Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
As a FIFA ranked referee Beaton gets more than his share of high profile fixtures, on Monday he took charge of Switzerland’s 2-1 away win against Andorra in a World Cup qualifier.
