‘Questionable is an understatement’ ‘carnage’ ‘Sick and fed up of it’ More grief for Collum as rising ref has TV shocker

Willie Collum’s week from hell took a new turn last night as the managers of Kilmarnock and Motherwell slaughtered the performance of Chris Graham in the 1-1 draw at Fir Park.

Honest Willie has been out working on his own profile while washing his hands of the absolute shambles that is Scottish refereeing, the system that has provided him with a very lucrative second income and now his main job.

Without question Collum has been the worst referee in Scottish football over the last 20 years, someone with no feeling or understanding of the game and contempt for footballers.

That style was coached into him by Hugh Dallas, now Scottish football has to suffer with two generations of Dallas and Collum clones who think that they are the star turns instead of the background act.

? @MotherwellFC manager Stuart Kettlewell reacts to a 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock and the red card for Dan Casey

“I’m sick, fed up of it…we have a serious problem in the game if that’s a red card.” ?? pic.twitter.com/BI8js7c0fv

— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 20, 2024

In the game I raised a concern, we had the same referee [Chris Graham] up in Dingwall the other week and there was over 60 minutes of dead time, I felt there was probably the same amount tonight. The game needs to breathe a wee bit more.

It becomes carnage. That’s the point we get to in the game of football. Questionable is an understatement. I always try and be honest. I am sick and fed up of it.

I’ve been told there’s been three key errors in our last five games. I try to move on and hope better times are ahead then it come to tonight and it’s by far the worst of them all. It’s quite incredible.

Him being sent to the monitor suggests he’s got it wrong. I’ve been given the heads up from Kilmarnock’s bench that this is going to be overturned. And the ref watches it several times and thinks that he’s got it right.

I’m concerned for the game in this country if we’re deeming that type of thing a red card. We want it to get better. Decisions like that are not moving it forward.

From early on Michael Stewart on Premier Sports was highlighting how out of his depth Graham was, rather than getting better or at least steadying up Graham’s performance got worse with two second half decisions utterly ridiculous. So bad that John McGinn took to Twitter to say that he had to switch the game off.

Summing up his night Graham watched Andy Halliday wipe out Brad Lyons around the penalty spot in the 62nd minute. Knowing that Halliday is a right good lad Graham awarded a free kick to Motherwell rather than a penalty.

Eight minutes later Danny Armstrong pulled on Dan Casey’s arm, the Motherwell defender turned round and pushed back.

Graham booked Armstrong but decided to red card the Irishman who scored a winning goal at Ibrox in March. After being offered the escape of a VAR Review Graham stuck with his decision.

Collum has been pushing and promoting officials like Graham since he became Head of Refereeing at the SFA carrying on the work of Crawford Allan.

Michael Nicholson thinks that the VAR Review show demonstrates transparency. Collum currently spends 25 minutes a month on hand picked honest mistakes, more than 25 minutes would be required to explain last night’s performance and why Graham has been fast tracked through the refereeing ranks.

Last month following a match against Ross County, Kettlewell said of Graham:

Ross County will enjoy the day because they get three points, but I doubt anyone enjoyed that game of football.

There was never a flow allowed to the game because of the fouls given, and staff and managers who naturally get frustrated were come after.

I don’t have an ego in any shape or form, I just want to see a game of football played.

I’m not looking for time-wasting. We can talk about the conditions, but if I was a paying supporter I would be incredibly hurt by that.

We have to do better in the second half, but there can’t be one supporter in the stadium that enjoyed the lack of flow in that game.

When we score, they look nervy, but we have to wait six minutes to get the game going again which kills any momentum we might have built.

With refereeing recruitment limited to the Bowling Club mentality from across Lanarkshire and Glasgow it is hardly a surprise that folk like Graham rise through the ranks while Collum concentrates on cultivating his media image.

Derek McInnes had similar views on the performance of last night’s referee, apparently match officials do get raked and demoted dependent on performances.

A controversial red card for Dan Casey in Motherwell’s 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock.

His manager Stuart Kettlewell described the decision to send off Casey as “quite incredible”. #BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/rkgOUdUgk1

— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) December 21, 2024