Another John Beaton pattern emerges

Once again, when their players are trailing, the Ibrox Tribute Act were yesterday handed a lifeline from the penalty spot.

With statistics or data as some call it so easily available it is straightforward to put the details together to establish patterns.

Yesterday at Ibrox John Beaton added to the two trends highlighted below. Celtic are more likely to be awarded a penalty when they are already in front, their city rivals tend to get them when they are trailing or level and in need of a lifeline.

Update.

Celtic awarded 28 Prem PKs over 3 seasons. Trailed once.

Rangers awarded 34 Prem PKs over 3 seasons. Trailed TEN times – 900% more than Celtic. They lost none of those 10 matches.

Rangers were 10-14-10 at the time of PK awards. They finished those matches 27-6-1. https://t.co/jHW21Aiy3q pic.twitter.com/XMT6L3JJOh

— x – GrandOLTeam (@JBLuvsCeltic) April 7, 2024

Beaton has plenty of experience of this sort of trend. Last January at Ibrox with the match level at 1-1 it was Tavpen O’Clock when Fashion Sakala dived into the leg of Carl Starfelt, slightly less obviously than Sunday’s theatrics from Fabio Silva.

Soon afterwards with Celtic trailing 2-1 the man from the Crown Bar in Bellshill didn’t want to know when Connor Goldson used both hands to block a shot from Starfelt.

Celtic aren’t the only side that suffers from this trend from Beaton and his colleagues, at the end of October Hearts were leading 1-0 at Ibrox thanks to a goal from Lawrence Shankland.

Beaton found added time to the three minutes of stoppage time he had indicated for, pointed to the penalty spot but Tavpen sent his shot off the post.

In the 90^th minute the former Wigan utility man got another opportunity from the penalty spot after Goldson had tumbled in the penalty box. After that equaliser Danilo scored a 97^th minute winner, another trend enjoyed at Ibrox where stoppage time rarely amounts to less than six minutes in the second half.