Bobby Madden has revealed that his worst ever performance was in a St Mirren v Celtic match in 2013.
Although there has been plenty of similar displays, including the March 2017 Glasgow derby when he refused Leigh Griffiths a late penalty, his display at Paisley in 2013 put him in the spotlight.
Victor Wanyama was red carded by Madden early in the second half for a challenge that was a debatable yellow card.
With Celtic leading 1-0 St Mirren equalised with a penalty despite there being no contact between Esmael Goncalves and Emile Izaguirre as the Saints winger fell a yard outside of the penalty box.
After 9 minutes 40 seconds Madden said:
The last time that I was in League One was in 2013 after a shocker of a performance I went to Arbroath and Albion Rovers.
I had a shocker at St Mirren against Celtic, my worst game ever. But I turned up and I remember one of the Rovers coaches saying ‘Bobby, it’s not often that you are down here’. I said ‘Did you not see what happened last week’ he said ‘No’ I said ‘I had a shocker’
He said ‘Of course I saw it’ and the whole dressing room is up laughing. I thought that I had got away with it, somebody in Scotland hadn’t seen it.
After that brief demotion Madden’s career has been on the up and up with the Lanarkshire based official on the elite FIFA list for lucrative international appointments.
Later in the podcast it had to be explained to Madden that new Dundee United boss Micky Mellon is Scottish after the referee stated his preference for Scottish managers to get jobs.
Covering Neil Lennon’s reaction to the St Mirren match BBC Scotland reported:
“That is by far the most appalling refereeing performance I’ve seen this season,” he said. “For both sides. How he got so many big decisions wrong in one day is beyond me.”
Lennon also thought St Mirren were denied a penalty in first-half stoppage time when Georgios Samaras controlled the ball with his arm.
“It’s a clear penalty,” he said. “Samaras has handled the ball. How he doesn’t see that and the linesman doesn’t see it is beyond me.
“We’re talking about the referee rather than the competitive nature of two good footballing teams. I haven’t said anything insulting or called the referee’s competence. I just thought he had an appalling game.”
Wanyama red card (3 min 14 seconds), St Mirren penalty (4 min 5 seconds)