SFA step up their John Beaton Celtic Assignment

John Beaton will be on VAR duty for Celtic’s home match against St Mirren on Saturday.

The man from the Crown Bar in Bellshill has only refereed seven matches in 2027. Three of them have involved Celtic- away at Falkirk and Ibrox plus the home match against Motherwell.

Against Motherwell Beaton ‘missed’ Daizen Maeda getting wiped out eight yards from goal. Following a prompt from VAR he reviewed the incident, awarded Celtic a penalty and sent off Motherwell defender Manny Longelo.

THE BEATON FACTOR

The VAR check for Celtic’s 88th minute penalty at Ibrox was the longest in Scottish football history.

As well as his on pitch activity Beaton was on VAR duty when Celtic drew 2-2 away to Hearts in January.

When Steven McLean booked Auston Trusty Beaton stepped in with a VAR review that resulted in the defender getting sent off.

Match referee Duncan Nicolson is one of a number of ‘rising stars’ being fast tracked by Willie Collum. Clones of Collum with no ability or understanding of football.

Nicholson has refereed two Celtic matches already this season, both involving ‘baffling’ decisions.

Against Dundee there was a bizarre booking for Ben Nygren in the closing stages after he ran from his own half and was puzzled by an offside decision.

At Kilmarnock in February Nicolson point blank refused to award Celtic a penalty. There were two second half incidents with the match level at 2-2.

First up Brad Lyons raised his arm to shield himself- and block a shot from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Nicolson waved play on

With 10 minutes left to play Sebastian Tounekti was waiting for the ball to land in the penalty box.

Lyons raised his arm to control the ball, it never reached Tounekti. Nicholson wabed play on.

Local VAR official Greg Aitken never intervened with either penalty call.

Saturday’s combo of Nicolson and Beaton looks like a major obstacle.