GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 09: Celtic's Daizen Maeda (L) is shown a yellow card by Referee Don Robertson during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park, on November 09, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Don Robertson gave another ‘baffling’ performance as Celtic beat Kilmarnock 4-0 today.
Not so baffling if you are familiar with Robertson’s style of refereeing, today followed a very distinct pattern.
THE ROBERTSON TEMPLATE
The ‘highlight’ for Roberson came in the 78th minute when he booked Daizen Maeda for absolutely nothing.
With the ball going out the Kilmarnock box the Celtic forward slid in to try and prevent a clearance.
Maeda was about a metre from the ball when James Brown shelled it towards the halfway line.
Knowing who was refereeing Brown dramatically threw himself to the ground. A cheap free kick was expected Robertson delivered the bonus of booking Maeda for absolutely no contact. No threat to the Kilmarnock player. Robertson was close to the incident and saw it all clearly.
Unbelievable, well not really pic.twitter.com/E8xvZ7R7LZ
— Tam sellic son (@TamseIIicsonIII) November 9, 2025
It was almost a throwback to April 2016 when Robertson awarded Ross County a penalty after Alex Schalk dived with clear fresh air between the County forward and Erik Sviatchenko.
PATTERN OF ASSISTANCE
That incident sent Robertson on the way to the top of Scottish refereeing. He knows what is expected. His game management is outstanding.
Celtic had 74.7% possession today, effectively three quarters.
The free kick count was 14-4 v Celtic!
Still, that was an improvement on his last Celtic Park appearance against Hibs in September.
In that match Celtic had 77.3% possession with a free kick count against of 16-1.
With Michael Nicholson fearful of criticising Robertson or refereeing there will be more performances like today.
Emerging referees know what is required to climb the ladder, Robertson is their poster boy.
In 11 SPFL Premiership matches so far this season Robertson has refereed four of those fixtures.
With 13 different referees put in charge of Premiership matches every referee should have had one Celtic match before Robertson got matches three and four.
Of course Willie Collum won’t offer any explanation despite claiming to bring transparency to the job of being Head of Refereeing at the SFA.
Its a horrendous booking and not able to be appealed, but at the end of the day, its the player thats bought that, he’s the one that should be shamed for obvious bad sportsmanship, not the ref.
The refs are bad here, but you’ve gotta mitigate that with every single player in the game is trying to trick them also.
They have a difficult job, nigh impossible at times, not withstanding the obvious bias we all know happens.
The game is chock full of cheats, not just the refs.
Stopping the advantage of play on the ( I think ) 74th min and going back for the free kick
He does this at least once every game with us
Just an awful referee. I have no idea how he gets away with it time after time after time.
The invisible man on our board is the reason this cheat along with others gets away with it
So weird given that Robertson usually lets players (especially Celtic ones) get maimed on a regular basis with common assault !
No point having a cheap var when they can’t get the basic decisions. Wullie collum must recind this card if he doesn’t Robertson should never referee again!!!
The Killie player is a cheat and should have been carded instead. Robertson is easily fooled if he could not see that…….. or?
Ive watched refs cheating for years and nothing ever gets done about it not even the cowards on our board say anything its just apity we never had another Fergus McCann hanging around paradise the weeman took no shite off they corrupt scumbags at hampden sfa.spfl infact the sevco fc 2012 are lucky because Ferguson McCann would never allow another team on that pitch at cheating liebrox and thats afact wee Ferguson would have went mental hearing that the 2nd club bought oldco cheating titles and cups after getting caught cheating using EBT And Sideletters eh only in masonic scotland can this happen cheat for years and still cliam oldco cheating titles and cups plus the media are just as bad after a year they deny that oldco were liquidated 2012 even our own club stayed quiet FAT PETER LAWWELL saying he never read the 5way agreement and yet us fans are still tossing our money at celtic football club 1888 to keep the biggest cheats in Scottish football oldco ranjurs R.I.P. SCUMBAGS BOTH CLUBS OLD 1872 AND NEW 2012 THE CHEATING IS STILL GOING ON TODAY UNTILL THE MASONIC FUCKPIGS AT CORRUPT HAMPDEN SFA.SPFL HAVE GOT THE CHEATS AT THE TOP RATS RATS AND RATS AT HAMPDEN LIEBROX..