Herald reporter claims that Celtic’s SPFL lead is down to dodgy refereeing decisions!

Matthew Lindsay of The Herald has claimed that Celtic’s lead at the top of the SPFL Premiership is in part down to mistakes made by match referees harming their city rivals. 

It is an incredible claim based on a few random incidents during the season with the well-worn mantra of decisions evening themselves out over the course of a season being dismissed. 

Every club in every division can point to certain decisions that went against them, in his Herald column Lindsay doesn’t provide any thorough analysis, simply highlighting a couple of decisions which apparently have altered matches and put Celtic into pole position to regain the title that they have won nine times in the last decade. 

After going through the run of the mill football issues Lindsay tells Herald readers: 

But there has been another major factor in the title race which should not be overlooked either. 

When current Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was asked following his side’s 2-1 home defeat to their city rivals at the start of this month why there had been a 12 point swing in the league since play resumed after the winter break back in January, he said: “We had some decisions not go in our favour.” 

Big calls have certainly gone against the Govan club in the Premiership this year and undermined their efforts. 

In the 1-1 draw with Dundee United at Tannadice back in February, referee Bobby Madden and his assistants failed to spot a pull on Fashion Sakala by Ross Graham yards in front of goal just as he was poised to volley home. 

In the 2-2 draw with Motherwell at Ibrox the following week, an Alfredo Morelos goal was disallowed by Don Robertson for offside even though Bevis Mugabi was playing the striker on. 

And in that narrow loss to Celtic a fortnight ago, Willie Collum should have taken action when Carter-Vickers tugged the shirt of Goldson in the visitors’ area at a James Tavernier corner kick. 

Kenny Miller, the former Rangers, Celtic and Scotland forward, was in no doubt the latter incident merited a spot kick when he appeared on the BBC Sportscene programme later that night. “That is a stonewall penalty,” he said. “Connor Goldson is trying to adjust to the flight of the ball and his movement is impeded.” 

It is, of course, far easier to make the right call hours after the event. I was at both Tannadice and Ibrox, saw the Sakala and Goldson flashpoints and suspected at the time that both Madden and Collum had probably been correct. Match officials in this country do not have the luxury of watching back replays from numerous different angles and have to make a judgement in the blink of an eye. 

Still, if VAR had been in use at those three games then two costly draws and a damaging defeat could easily, given Tavernier’s prowess from 12 yards out, have been turned into two victories and a draw and Rangers would be five points better off and a point ahead at the top of the table. 

That is a perhaps an overly simplistic assessment. The late great Walter Smith always used to maintain that decisions evened themselves out over the course of a season and he was right. For every injustice his beloved club have suffered in the past 10 months they have probably enjoyed a lucky break. The same goes for the leaders. 

No reasonable observer could deny that Celtic deserve to be in first place and on the verge of glory or argue that Rangers merit being in front at this stage given how Postecoglou’s side and Van Bronckhorst’s team have acquitted themselves respectively in the top flight during the past nine months. 

Nevertheless, wrong rulings have certainly been made in important matches and the Rangers players, manager, officials and supporters will have every right to feel aggrieved if they are pipped to the Premiership and a possible place in the Champions League group stages. 

It is vital the SPFL clubs vote in favour of bringing in VAR, and not just a cheap watered-down version of it either, on Tuesday. Yes, the technology is expensive and funds are in short supply in these challenging times. But in the modern age, when spectators can review passages of play on their smart phones within seconds and referees are under intolerable pressure because of the disadvantage they are at, it is a must. The integrity of the Premiership is at risk without it. 

Andy Halliday & Bobby Madden #pals pic.twitter.com/CNCQf91wwF

— We Won It First ?? (@liamt67) July 31, 2021

Lindsay is the chief sports writer at The Herald, perhaps he has forgotten the opening match of the season at Tynecastle when a perfectly good goal from Liel Abada was disallowed that would have put Celtic 2-1 in front with 10 minutes left to play. Earlier in the match Andy Halliday wasn’t shown any card for a brutal lunge at Callum McGregor’s ankle. 

There has also been more than a few dubious decisions go in favour of the Ibrox club, in September Fashion Sakala scored against Motherwell from an offside position in the six yard box, the Fir Park side had to settle for a draw that day. 

Hopefully VAR is approved at an SPFL vote in midweek, reducing honest mistakes across the board for all clubs. 

According to Similarweb traffic to The Herald site has dropped from 5.1m in January to 4.3m in March.

? Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass on the goals they conceded in their 2-2 draw against Rangers:

“We’ve been undone by a free-kick that doesn’t look like a free-kick and a penalty that doesn’t look like a penalty”. pic.twitter.com/HNrhpryK72

— Andrew Maclean (@AndrewMaclean_) October 27, 2021