With the extremely limited pool of ‘talent’ to select from the SFA opted to put John Beaton in charge of Sunday’s Glasgow Derby.Â
Mention his name and thoughts usually turn to the Crown Bar in Bellshill where he celebrated with the locals after going the extra mile in December 2018 with Alfredo Morelos enjoying John Lundstram levels of immunity.Â
After a few days of social media criticism Celtic came out with one of their trademark statements, after that Peter Lawwell was reminded of the architects of the 2012 Five Way Agreement and the subject was quietly buried.Â
Following a four month break Beaton was back getting Celtic matches, in 2020 he was honoured by being put in charge of the Scottish Cup Final.Â
Kevin Clancy was given the first Glasgow Derby of the season, unusually he delivered a performance without drama or controversy but after being blackballed by the Ibrox PR operation in January he has been out of commission.Â
Bobby Madden got the next one, after hesitating over disallowing Reo Hatate’s opener he managed to deliver a reasonable performance before correcting that in the Scottish Cup semi-final.Â
Willie Collum could have given either side penalties in the April 3 match at Ibrox which left the SFA with a likely choice of Beaton or Boclair Academy PE teacher Nick Walsh for Sunday’s match.Â
They opted for the man from Bellshill, anyone familiar with Twitter will be in no doubt over what to expect from Beaton, in the Scottish Cup semi-final between Hearts and Hibs and Friday’s Kilmarnock-Arbroath match he looked miles off it, almost as if he had another fixture on his mind.Â
Intense scrutiny on Cheating Beaton. All eyes will be on him. The world is watching, let’s see his style.
— Mallorca Bhoy (@Mallorca_Bhoy) April 26, 2022
BROTHER BEATON… pic.twitter.com/aSImYiy26m
— Neil (NEERU)????????? (@mcfadzean_neil) April 26, 2022
One last obstacle thrown in our way
— Huell Babinovski Volume 2 (@huell_2) April 26, 2022
Last throw of the dice for the establishment.
— Brian McVeigh (@BrianMcVeigh7) April 26, 2022
At least 2
— tony gordon (@gordon_tony) April 26, 2022
Sevco given free reign to hack away.
— MalkyC (@MalkyC01) April 26, 2022
At least on pen guaranteed for The Old Firm team.
— Allan (@Crofter100) April 26, 2022
Only in Scotland an a staunch supporter of o e ream e allowed to referee their game! Something needs to be done about this. ?
— LJ Barr ???????? (@lindajanedoris) April 26, 2022
Time for foreign refs as these refs are totally incompetent and biased to boot. They can’t ref the team they support. @UEFAcom @ScottishFA @CelticFC
— IntheHeatofLisbon (@malahidebhoy) April 26, 2022
I’ll bet you IF a referee drank in a Celtic pub he would be nowhere near a derby match
— Tony (@TonyRos28015962) April 26, 2022
Thought the Hearts/Hibs semi would have pushed him down the list, he’s absolutely hopeless.
— CMac (@CMack659) April 26, 2022
I can honestly say if loyalist beaton does a madden i can see a riot at paradise if that scumhun beaton lets sevco players do what they want injured celtic players so if i was beaton i would just ref the game and play fare but i cant see cheating beaton doing that so expect trouble if beaton causes celtic 3 points with bad decisions..
This appointment is a disgrace, Celtic FC needs to get a Backbone and refuse this Referee ,at once.