The imaginary foul- was this Bobby Madden’s most bizarre blunder?
Soccer Football - Scottish Cup Semi Final - Celtic v Rangers - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - April 17, 2022 Celtic's Callum McGregor talks to referee Bobby Madden REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
It would take a very long time to go through yesterday’s Scottish Cup semi-final picking out all of the strange decisions by Bobby Madden.
John Lundstram enjoyed an awful lot of good fortune, or the benefit of the doubt, to survive without even a yellow card before he was substituted in extra-time.
The bookings given to Ryan Jack and Kemar Roofe could have been red cards but it seemed that Madden wanted to maintain a full complement of players.
Watch the ref here? What’s he seen? Why does he follow the play then bring it back for an imaginary foul? Very strange. pic.twitter.com/DiGQSSfyGw
— Joe Brannan (@Jb78Brannan) April 17, 2022
Summing up his puzzling afternoon was an incident in the 117th minute when David Turnbull took a free-kick after he had been barged into by Scott Arfield.
All of the players on the park recognise that it is a free kick to Celtic, on the touchline Giovanni van Bronckhorst urges his players back into defensive positions as Turnbull fires a promising diagonal pass to Jota.
Suddenly Madden decided to blow his whistle, while everyone on the park had positioned themselves for a Celtic free kick the match referee pulled play back and restarted with a free kick for van Bronckhorst’s side, and the chance to run down a few more precious minutes.