Why on earth did John Beaton book Liam Scales against Livingston?

Once again Celtic fans were left wondering why John Beaton is allowed near any matches involving their side.

At the turn of the year at Ibrox he awarded a penalty against Ange Postecoglou’s side after Fashion Sakala kicked out at Carl Starfelt early in the second half.

Later in the match he refused to award Celtic a penalty when Connor Goldson raised his hands in the penalty box to block a shot from Starfelt. A couple of very predictable decisions from the Lanarkshire referee.

Today’s crime scene was the Toni Macaroni Stadium where Beaton got two big decisions correct in the first half when he awarded Celtic a penalty and sent off Joe Hart.

Either side of them Beaton did his best to level things up with bookings for Celtic players while David Martindale’s side were able to go over the top without the threat of punishment.

In the 22^nd minute a horror challenge on Matt O’Riley went unpunished, seconds later Alistair Johnston was booked with a VAR review to see if it could be upgraded to a red.

Four minutes later Beaton really highlighted how he doesn’t have a clue about football and the Laws of the Game.

Knowing that there was little prospect of a card of either colour Mo Sangare slid in late after Liam Scales had cleared the ball, fortunately the Irishman anticipated the lunge and got out the way of a dangerous attack.

Amazingly it was Scales that was booked, joining Johnston in having to be very careful on the horrible pitch served up by Livingston.

Once the game was done and dusted Beaton did start evening things up with four Livi players booked between the 68^th and 80^th minutes.

In January 2019 Peter Lawwell was pushed into sending a letter to the SFA looking for answers on some baffling decisions from Beaton involving Alfredo Morelos at Ibrox.