Last night Mark Milligan became the latest player to be endangered by John Beaton’s relaxed attitude to player safety.
In stoppage time during their Hibs; 4-2 win over Dundee the Australian slipped and while getting back upright Scott Wright of Dundee changed his direction to put his knee into Milligan’s head. Beaton saw the incident clearly and took no action.
Fortunately Wright wasn’t travelling at any real pace but the intent was there as he briefly changed direction to ensure contact with his grounded opponent.
CLICK THIS LINK to see the kneeing incident at 4 minutes 50 seconds.
The problems that the SFA face over refereeing issues are all summed up in Beaton. As one of the seven FIFA rated referees they continually give him top fixtures despite a clear lack of ability and judgement. It seems that membership of the Lanarkshire Referee Association is his main attribute.
On December 29 he allowed between three and five physical attacks by Alfredo Morelos on Celtic players to go unpunished.
When the SFA refused to take retrospective action Celtic asked them why, they wanted Beaton’s reasoning to be published. That request was made on January 4, since then not a word or comment has been made.
If Beaton saw the attacks on Ryan Christie, Scott Brown and Tony Ralston and decided not to take action then the SFA, and John Fleming in particular have a problem.
Fleming is continuing to give Beaton the top matches, on Tuesday he was in charge of the Inverness Caley Thistle v Ross County Scottish Cup replay. On Wednesday the Lanarkshire based official will referee the Kilmarnock v Motherwell match- three match fees in nine days.