Another two weeks on and again no points scored, however (and there's always a however eh?) both last week and this we have controversial decisions all in favour of C*ltic.

 

Last week we had a Cally player incorrectly flagged offside when running clean through on goal, a decision given by the same linesman who (correctly) gave Malony on-side in a very similar close call earlier in the game. The benifit of the doubt goes to C*ltic in one instance and goes against their opponent in the next! Interesting eh?

 

This week? well we have a referee going into his pocket to issue a well deserved red card to Gary Caldwell then clearly bottling the decision. Is this my analysis of the situation? nope it's the analysis of most/all of the commentators.

I don't know much about the game in Mordor this afternoon so if anything happened there I'll comment later.

 

In Dundee however we have Rangers players through on goal and incorrectly flagged off side not once, not twice, but three times! Two of these decisions were tight and difficult calls, the one for Kenny Miller however was one of those decisions which it's very difficult to believe that the linesman simply 'got it wrong'. Miller was two strides on-side for gawds sake! The same linesman then went on to give a string of incorrect decisions, all in favour of Utd.

 

I'm not claiming any points for these events but it's definitely more evidence for the prosecution as far as I'm concerned.

 

btw, the ref had an absolute nightmare as well. He should have sent off Weir (straight red) and Gomis (2nd yellow) and managed to book Ferguson for nothing and Mendes for a foul committed by Whittaker. If there's a worse ref in Scotland I've not seen him yet.

Craig Thomson has been appointed as the referee for the Old Firm game at Ibrox on 27th December. That's a good decision in my opinion, he's the best referee in Scotland by a distance at the moment. He's not infallable though.

No real controversy at Ibrox today, but then that's probably only because Rangers won the game anyway despite the ref turning down two very strong penalty claims for the Bears.

 

So, over to Falkirk in a repeat fixture of what was the most scandalous referee & linesman performance of last year. Anyone remember the game? Falkirk denied three stick-on penalty kicks, Mcmanus allowed to stay on the park after committing the worst foul of the season (inflicting a compound leg fracture on his victim) and C*ltic winning the game with an offside goal. One of the main contributory days towards their tainted title if I remember correctly.

TGO, we're still waiting for your update. Are we still at Celtic +5, Rangers -2 ?

 

Has anyone noticed how many points Celtic are ahead ? Funny that.

I don't think we saw any clear-cut bad decisions which I could award points won or lost against. What I would say however is that there was a string of debatable 'big' decisions (non-penalty against Caldwell for handball, non-sending off of Caldwell for bringing down Miller, non-sending off of Naylor for persistant fouling, non-penalty against Borat for pulling down Miler by the neck) all of which went in C*ltic's favour. Watching the game live in the Copland stand we had reached the point where every decision to Rangers was met by a loud ironic cheer. That usually sums it up quite well.

It has to be said that, though, that it's not looking good for those who subscribe to the "these things balance themselves out over the season" theory.

 

Here we are, now over halfway through the season, and Rangers have not had one single result-deciding refereeing decision go in their favour which has gained them one single point. But we have lost two, and Celtic have gained five.

 

On the basis that that these things do infact even themselves out, I'm looking forward to Celtic's 7-point lead being slashed to zero in the second half of the season.

 

But I'm not holding my breath, because we all know the column inches and week-long phone-ins that will happen as soon as one single decision goes in Rangers' favour, we've seen it all before many times.

Well then, very soft penalty for Rangers equaliser yesterday. Interesting to note the Sunday Mail report today goes big on this but omits to mention the THREE other big shouts for Rangers penalties which the ref turned down. My feeling at the time was that the ref 'equaled things up' by awarding the pen in a tacit admission that he should have given at least one of the previous two shouts. He did the same thing in the 2nd half by sending off Papac for what should have been a yellow card offence (trip on the half way line to stop a guy going clear down the left) after ealier giving a Falkirk player a straight red for a 50/50 tackle with Mendes.

 

Yet another pathetic performance from a Scottish ref, no points awarded however. On we go to Sheepville today.

none were pens from what i seen boyd is the biggest diver in the league and its about time it was reported on

That title belongs to Scott McDonald by a country mile.

Some controversial decisions again this afternoon. Offside issues surround 3 of the 6 goals, Aberdeen's second is the correct decision but C*ltic's second and Aberdeen's fourth were both fractionally offside. Very difficult decisions to call right enough. Should Kerr have been red carded? I've seen tackles like that punished with a red but I've also seen a couple of C*ltic players get away with similar ofences this season so I don't they can complain too much. I felt Aberdeen should have had an early penalty for a shove by Brown (no attempt to play the ball) but the decision later in the game to award a penalty then change his mind and award a goal was bizarre to say the least.

 

End of the day, much like at Ibrox, the controversial decsions went both ways so no more points scored this weekend.

I've now seen the highlights from Ibrox and they actually only showed one of the three penalty shouts I was talking about. They did however manage to find another one that I'd forgotten about and that one and the first Boyd one (on the bye-line) were both stick-ons imho. So, the ref gave a penalty for Ranger's fourth big shout in the ten minutes leading up to half time. I think he reckoned that the four incidents simply added up to at least one penalty

Now extended highlights on the BBC website. From the highlights shown it's clear that Rangers should have had three penalties yesterday, four if you include the soft one that was actually given. The decision to not give a pen for the Boyd 2nd half one is completely laughable.

 

No highlights have shown Miller being shoved off the ball whilst in mid-air trying an overhead kick or the foul on Ferguson in the 2nd half where the ref gave a foul right on the edge when everybody thought he was inside the box. Six penalties in the same game? What would our impartial press have had to say about that eh?

Yes, it was no surprise to see the "con man" banner headlines on the back of the paper today. You know, the same banner headlines that mysteriously don't appear when a decision goes in Celtic's favour.

I thought at the game that the penalty was a bit soft but I haven't seen any replays yet and sometimes they are not conclusive. One which I thought was in no doubt was the goalkeeper's one on Boyd which was deemed not a penalty, much to my surprise. I missed the one where Miller was supposed to have had his jersey pulled so it will be interesting to see if that is shown tonight. As regards the two sending offs, I did not see the incident very clearly with Mendes and the Falkirk player but I thought Papac deserved to be sent off as he never remotely looked like getting the ball and when he went in to the tackle, with his wrong foot, he was always going to bring the man down. If the Falkirk player had not been brought down he had only Weir to beat and we saw how quick Weir was on Saturday. Everone goes on about this stupid last man rule but the referee has the right to send players off for violent and deliberarate fouls wherever they take place and this was one of very few he got right.