Nick Walsh’s incredible stats from Celtic’s win over Livingston

Wednesday February 1 wasn’t the greatest day in the career of Nick Walsh.

He might be the golden boy of the SFA, handing one of two Glasgow derbies this season and one of two Viaplay Cup semi-finals but that doesn’t make him immune to bad performances.

Midway through Wednesday morning he got word through that the SFA had accepted Nicky Clark’s appeal against getting sent off at Ibrox on Saturday.

Walsh’s job was to ensure that there is no need for an appeal. Willie Collum made the mistake on the pitch, with the benefit of multiple camera angles Walsh agreed with that decision, he didn’t suggest that his colleague buys himself some time by checking the pitch-side monitor.

With that on his mind he drove to Celtic Park for the visit of Livingston, a game that should have been as stress-free as St Johnstone’s visit to Ibrox

It could be said that Walsh refereed the game erratically. Despite having 81% possession Celtic committed 11 fouls in last night’s 3-0 win compared to just five from Livingston according to the BBC Scotland stats.

Research shows that effective playing time in the SPFL Premiership is 58.3% which comes in at 52.47 minutes of playing time. With the Livingston goalkeeper warned about time wasting after eight minutes there was probably even less playing time in last night’s match.

With Livingston having the ball 19% of the time that comes in at 10 minutes, Walsh awarded David Martindale’s side a free kick every 55 seconds that they were in possession.

In contrast Celtic had possession for 42 minutes and 30 seconds, with just five fouls committed the visitors were guilty of foul play every eight and a half minutes. Livingston were awarded a free kick nine times as frequently as Celtic while in possession.

Last night was Celtic’s 12th home match in the SPFL Premiership, Walsh has refereed one third of them.

CLICK HERE for BBC Scotland statistics.