It won’t come as any surprise to anyone who has followed his career but the SFA have confirmed today that Nick Walsh doesn’t know the Laws of the Game.
Tonight at Celtic Park, after his stint as a PE teacher at Boclair Academy in Bearsden Walsh will be trusted with refereeing the match between Celtic and Livingston- his fourth appointment at Celtic Park this season.
Earlier today the SFA accepted St Johnstone’s appeal against the red card issued to Nicky Clark on Saturday by Willie Collum.
Walsh is very much the rising star on the refereeing circuit, one of only four current referees that has been put in charge of a Glasgow derby.
On Saturday Walsh was on VAR duty at Ibrox, his job was to highlight any clear and obvious mistakes to his colleague Collum to ensure that the right decisions are made.
The usual excuses of incidents happening at speed with the referee only having one chance to see it no longer applies. That is why St Johnstone and others are paying for VAR, additional match fees to the ‘elite’ officials.
Walsh was unable to get his match referee to check the pitch-side monitor although the 40 second delay between contact with Ryan Jack and the red card suggests that there was contact between the referee and VAR.
What should the SFA do with Nick Walsh?
Carry on Nick, everyone is allowed honest mistakes
Demote him to the Lowland League, learn from his mistakes
Sack him, he is incapable of applying the Laws of the Game
Clark has had his two match ban lifted, he is free to face Motherwell and Celtic but it is unclear what will happen to Walsh and Collum.
Clearly he doesn’t understand the laws of the game even when he has access to multiple camera angles, typically Crawford Allan is hiding in a cupboard at Hampden, his usual location unless a goal from Kyogo Furuhashi upsets Kris Boyd and Robbie Neilson.
Nicky Clark has won his appeal for the red card shown to him against Rangers.
He will now be available for selection for our match away to Motherwell this evening.#SJFC | @SPFL
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) February 1, 2023
Bare in mind two of our ‘top refs’ called this
— Billy McC (@eaglescot) February 1, 2023
Correct decision and making Stuart Dougal’s bizarre defence of Collum look even more farcical
— AM ??????? (@annemarie6377) February 1, 2023
What are your thoughts on this?? The word corrupt springs to mind. VAR is in place so this doesn’t happen
— John Francis ??? (@JohnFMckeown) February 1, 2023
The referee and var team should be sacked.
— Barry McGowan ????????? (@fuckaduct) February 1, 2023
Still didn’t win a point on Saturday….that should have been the appeal
Corruption at the heart of Scottish football and we’re accepting it
— ___Ghost_of___ (@___Ghost_of___) February 1, 2023
Is Crawford Allan answering his phone yet?
— Quinn T. Senshal (@quinntsenshal) February 1, 2023
So last season we had a Dundee Utd player able to see out the match against Celtic on a yellow, after a red card tackle on Turnbull, but banned for a match against Rangers shortly after that, when the yellow was retrospectively upgraded to a red.
Now we see a Saints player sent off at Ibrox (something that, like a penalty award against them, is yet to happen to a Rangers player, despite several incidences where it should have, including during that game), allowing them to play against 10 men for a big chunk of the game.
However, once that game’s over and Rangers have chalked up their ill-gotten three points, the red is rescinded and the Saints player is suddenly free to play in a game against Celtic that he would otherwise have been banned for. But Ally the Ibrox gardener thinks we and supporters of every other team in Scotland that have seen this for what it is, are just paranoid. Tosser.
Is it possible for Nick Walsh to be impartial in aRanjurs game as he is on their payroll
Next for Walsh is sadly carry on regardless
Frankly, it’s not enough to sack him. He needs to be replaced with a proper, fair referee. So do others.