Former referee Charlie Richmond has accused Joey Garner of acting like a three-year-old child and claimed that there are no agendas from referees.
I don’t know of anyone that has claimed an agenda, most managers and players comment on specific incidents.
When Hamilton Accies lost to Sevco in the Scottish Cup Dougie Imrie suggested that he would have been treated differently to Joey Garner if he had committed a late hip high tackle on the striker. Imrie wasn’t called by the SFA to explain his comment.
Yesterday Kevin Clancy watched Garner race to confront Ryan Jack then fall theatrically to the deck hoping to get the Aberdeen captain sent off. Both players were booked.
Clancy and Beaton will almost certainly be given Premiership fixtures this weekend.
Explaining the baffling decisions in the Record Richmond said: “Referee Kevin Clancy handled the incident perfectly well but Garner has to have a look at himself for his reaction.
“What was he trying to do? He was blatantly trying to get his opponent sent off, it was like watching the behaviour of a three-year-old child.
“It took him a few seconds to think, “I’ve been hurt, I better throw myself to the ground.”
Switching his attention to events at Cappielow on Saturday Richmond decides to make quite an accusation about Neil Lennon.
“We’ve also had Hibs boss Neil Lennon claiming he may be the victim of a refereeing campaign,” is the former referees take on things.
“In all the years I was involved in the game, there have been no agendas in any shape or form. I would stake everything on that be it clubs, players or managers.
“I’ve been in refereeing circles and around the game long enough to know they don’t exist. Nobody is out to get anyone and if Neil believes he’s victim of an agenda, he’s wide of the mark.
“He’s had a bad run of of decisions. Simple. Hibs have had five red cards, three of which were overturned. They felt they should have had a penalty on Saturday when Morton’s Mark Russell appeared to handle in the box. I never saw the incident but referee Bobby Madden believed the ball was fired at the defender and it was too close for him to do anything about it.”
Garner won’t be suspended for the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic, Lennon could be banned from the dug out for the Aberdeen v Hibs semi-final.
