A former top referee has told the Daily Record that Andrew Dallas got three of his four penalty decisions WRONG!
Steve Conroy used to be one of the high flyers in the Lanarkshire Referees Association bit took things too far in his only Glasgow derby appointment and his career started to slip away.
When he stopped getting televised matches and European trips he decided to hang up his whistle.
Dallas has still to be given charge of a Glasgow derby but has been carefully fast-tracked to the top alongside fellow Lanarkshire referees Bobby Madden and John Beaton.
Earlier this season Dallas awarded Sevco two late penalties to secure a 4-1 win at Hamilton- yesterday at Ibrox he managed to award four penalties with former ref Conroy claiming that THREE of those decisions were wrong calls.
The Record report:
PENALTY 1:
The only thing going through my mind if I’m a ref looking at that is that it’s brainless defending. No shadow of a doubt it’s a spot-kick.
PENALTY 2:
I don’t see any contact. If anything the defender’s foot is on the ground before Jermain Defoe goes down. Being polite, you’d say he was trying to avoid contact. With a player of his experience, I’m thinking not only is it not a penalty, he should be cautioned for simulation.
PENALTY 3:
People seem to think the debate here is inside or outside the box. For me, that’s irrelevant. It’s not even a handball offence.
The defender doesn’t have his arms in an unnatural position and, far from making himself bigger, he’s actually trying to get smaller. It’s not a deliberate handball, it’s the assistant’s call, not the ref’s. Even if he does think it’s a handball, you have to be utterly convinced it’s in the box there to give it, and I don’t see how he can be.
PENALTY 4:
This one is definitely Dallas’ call, although the assistant can offer an opinion. Again you have to be sure it’s inside the box to give it. I think it’s obvious enough it’s outside for him to have seen it and not awarded it. My gut would be to caution the player for diving into the box to make it look like a penalty.
Internal criticism of referees is virtually unknown, on Monday Radio Scotland are likely to wheel out Kenny Clark to explain that it is all Neil Lennon’s fault.
On Wednesday night Madden will be in charge for Sevco’s visit to Aberdeen with his close friend from East Kilbride, David Roome one of his assistants.
