Despite a welcome return to winning ways Celtic fans were furious at the performance of Bobby Madden in their win over Aberdeen.
There was a real accumulation of incidents over the 90 minutes which are best summed up by Celtic having 63% possession yet committing 27 fouls to the 10 by Aberdeen.
Last week Madden was on the end of criticism from Dundee boss James McPake over failing to send off Jon McLaughlin at a penalty incident, clearly the Lanarkshire based referee isn’t in the best form of his career.
There was a succession of niggling fouls on Celtic players early in the match that mostly went unpunished. When David Turnbull committed a run of the mill foul a yellow card was pulled out with Andy Walker suggesting that it was in response to others that hadn’t resulted in a card. Bizarre reasoning.
Today was the second time in eight SPFL matches that Celtic have had Madden, in the opening game of the season he allowed Andy Halliday to go unpunished for a brutal and cynical kick at Callum McGregor. Madden is a regular guest with Halliday on the Open Goal podcast.
Andy Halliday & Bobby Madden #pals pic.twitter.com/CNCQf91wwF
— We Won It First ?? (@liamt67) July 31, 2021
Compare Turnbull booking to how Bobby Madden dealt with his Open Goal buddy Halliday’s attack on Callum McGregor SPFL day 1
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) October 3, 2021
That Bobby Madden performance was amongst the worst I’ve seen, farcical
— Casey Morgan (@caseymor) October 3, 2021
scottish refs are an absolute shambles? bobby madden breaking up play every five seconds and nick walsh giving out reds for perfectly good tackles. VAR isn’t the answer btw, gonna be these same clowns using it
— rd (@rduncan39) October 3, 2021
Bobby madden is a shocking ref btw
— simpo (@RyanXryyan) October 3, 2021
Mom today , Aberdeen’s CDM Bobby madden , broke up countless Celtic attacks to keep his team in the game ???
— jibla65 (@jibla65) October 3, 2021
But, as Andy Walker said, Madden “had no choice because of all the previous fouls.” By other players (and, be fair, Jota could have been booked three fouls before he was). I hope Walker is getting paid well. Because if he’s being that dumb for the FUN of it…
— Mark Murphy (@MarkMurphy66) October 3, 2021
Odd comment wasn’t it? Turnbull is paying the price for an accumulation of fouls by OTHER players? That’s the media and journalistic talent in Scotland in a nutshell.
— Frederick? (@crocoman07) October 3, 2021
Good away win against a tough Bobby Madden?
— Ho Chi Timh (@hochitimh) October 3, 2021
Bobby Madden is a great subject for why VAR is going to absolutely hopeless in the hands of our officials.
His performance today was nothing short of appalling, sadly VAR doesn’t interject in the fouls he continued to give Aberdeen.
We need competent full time refs – then VAR.
— Craig (@CraigCelt) October 3, 2021
A huge three points there. It must be the catalyst for better, but for now, we can enjoy that. Also, Bobby Madden is a wrong ‘un eh? Delighted his day has been ruined.
— RhebelRhebel (@RhebelRhebel) October 3, 2021
???| We’ve got a belter of a Keeping the Ball on the Ground for you tomorrow…@siferry8 ?@KevinKyle1981 ?
Andy Halliday ?
Bobby Madden ?See you the morra! pic.twitter.com/GZNBYZcsZA
— Open Goal (@opengoalsport) July 6, 2020
— Angelos P. (@Sold4Alb) October 3, 2021