Willie Collum breaks two of the great taboos of Scottish refereeing

Viewers to the Motherwell v Hibs Scottish Cup tie were given an early shock by referee Willie Collum. 

In the second minute of the match Bevis Mugabe lunged at Josh Doig as the Hibs player passed the ball with the full force of the defender sending Doig crashing to the ground. Celtic fans are very familiar with that sort of challenge. 

A straight red card or an early red card are almost unknown in Scottish football, sometimes it appears that the first foul, regardless of severity, results in a stern word of warning while the first 10 minutes of a match have a more lenient set of Laws applied. 

In December David Turnbull was the victim of a far more dangerous attack from Calum Butcher, referee Don Robertson felt that it was only worth a yellow card to the Dundee United midfielder. The SFA retrospectively upgraded to a red card and three match ban. 

A month later Mouhamed Niang delivered a brutal assault on Yosuke Guchi’s ankle. Again Robertson was the referee, again a yellow card was produced with the SFA returning to upgrade it to a red with the Celtic midfielder out of action for one month.