Paranoid Philippe turns to Dermot Gallagher for backing!

Philippe Clement has turned to Dermot Gallagher to justify the decision making of John Beaton during Sunday’s Glasgow Derby.

The Ibrox boss is sounding increasingly desperate as he realises that he is expected to deliver a domestic treble over the remaining weeks of the season.

Two wins out of six, both against Hibs, suggest that the going is starting to toughen up for the former Monaco boss despite his side being awarded a penalty every 130 minutes in domestic games.

There were no penalties in either match against Benfica as they waved good-bye to European football.

With a hand-picked audience for media conferences designed to deliver the softest of questions Clement was able to get some paranoia out of his system as he previewed tonight’s match at Dundee.

It is unlikely that Clement will know too much about the refereeing ‘expert’ at Sky Sports but someone in the Ibrox Communications department will have given him the nod, almost in a throwback to the way Walter Smith referenced former linesman Mr Murphy.

From his conference with newspapers The Sun reports the Ibrox boss saying:

I see the Ref Watch on Sky Sports, and Dermot Gallagher, who is neutral — although maybe people say he is more a favourite of Celtic, I don’t know if it’s true or not — but he clearly says it is a penalty.

And all the situations were clear in the game. I’m also disappointed when we score a goal and they go back more than ten seconds.

You can also have the discussion when the defender of Celtic touched the ball first, so you can say that’s a new action but I didn’t make any comments about that, nothing.

That last passage would suggest that Paranoid Phil does have some comments to make, that the Dessers ‘goal’ should have stood despite it starting with Tom Lawrence wiping out Tomoki Iwata in front of Beaton who let those situations go throughout the match.

Gallagher is about as neutral or Celtic minded as Kris Boyd, they both get paid by Sky Sports and know the message to send out.