Beaton given emotional return to Ibrox
John Beaton makes an emotional return to Ibrox this afternoon for the visit of Hibs- his first refereeing appointment there since his controversial handling of the December derby clash.
On that occasion it seemed that the Lanarkshire based official had given Alfredo Morelos licence to do as e pleases against Celtic players.
Scott Brown, Ryan Christie and Tony Ralton were all on the end of vicious attacks from the 12th best striker in Colombia but there wasn’t even a word of warning issued to Morelos never mind a yellow or red card. Amazingly the SFA opted out of applying retrospective justice.
Five days after the game Celtic issued a statement requesting that the referee’s match report was made public, with the SFA ignoring that request.
In April Beaton was in charge of Steven Gerrard’s side when they visited Hearts before taking charge of Celtic’s title clincher at Pittodrie.
So far this season Beaton has only taken charge of two matches. Hamilton’s 2-2 draw with Partick Thistle in the Betfred Cup and the Europa League tie between Lechia Gdansk and Brondby on July 25.