Celtic Diary Thursday October 28: What Difference Does It Make ?

A week since the last diary appeared, things are most certainly looking up.

Celtic have managed to find a little bit of consistency in their results, and whilst there are still those moments of magic interspersed with the behind the couch bits, it looks like the defence are starting to play like a defence.

As a result, we’re now the in form team in Scotland, and have stormed into second place in the table.

Hearts, Dundee united and plucky little “rangers ” have all dropped points lately, whilst the hoops have hit a sort of purple patch, although that claim may well be only relative.

Last night Celtic put on a first half performance that matched anything seen by the team anywhere in the last few years, with three goals in the first half hour, but there could have easily been half a dozen.

In the second half, the style altered a wee bit with Nir Biton replacing Tom Rogic, who had been playing out of his skin, which led to a more sudued performance, but when you’ve already won the game, the players can be excused for taking it a little easier as there is quite a busy few weeks ahead.

Elsewhwere, plucky little “rangers ” fought back from two down to earn a valiant point at home to Aberdeen, with former Celtic captain Scott Brown scoring for the Dons.

He seemed to enjoy it.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1453440952937373705

Dundee United and Hearts both picked up away points, the former at the difficult plastic pitch at Livingston, and the latter at double cup winners St Johnstone.

In fact, one might say there’s a bit of healthy competition in the game just now.

Trouble is, there’s some unhealthy competition as well.

At Easter Road, it took three assaults on Tom Rogic before a card was shown, which is bad enough, but it was the same player every time committing the fouls. Rogic was later withdrawn, presumably for his own safety.

Enthusastic Hibernian brawler Ryan Porteous was sent off a couple of weeks ago for intent…which is when a player thinks about hurting another, and yet last night , when he actually did hurt someone…

…all he got was a yellow.

Consistency has never been a feature of Scottish refereeing ability, but there is a more sinsiter line to it, as it always seems to favour one team and put another at a disadvantage….

https://twitter.com/i/status/1453471715699396611

Since day one, the diary has been watching and recording the antics of our referees, to support the perception of bias theory, and last night, it looked like things may come to a head sooner rather than later.

There are two types of refereeing mistakes in Scotland, and it’s important to define them and look at them separately.

The one that concerns, or should concern us most, isn’t a new phenomena. It’s been around for some time.

Thats the one highlighted in the picture of Calum MacGregor above, and by the withdrawla of Tom Rogic.

Simply, referees are “letting the game flow ” as it’s a “contact sport ” where Celtic are concerned, and “old fashioned , full blooded tackles ” are just “part of the game ” .

Unless, of course, it’s a Celt who commits one of these fouls, or any other type of foul, come to think of it, such as not tucking his shirt in or waving to his mum in the crowd, whereby it becomes an excuse to stop the game.

Evidenced by the somewhat bizarre “crime count ” figures mentioned in other diaries.

It’s not evident yet, but you might want to keep a look out for more bookings, becuase as they mount up, suspensions for key players will kick in, and you won;t be surprised when you nitice whiuch games key players won;t be available for…

Something else to watch out for as well. Though there is, as yet, little evidece for it, and it;s just a theory.

If a referee starts hugging Celtic players or licking their faces, he’s probably tested positive for covid that morning.

We’ve seen it all before, of course, not the Covid scenario, but all the other little “mistakes ” made, either consciously or subconsciously that seem to overall benefit just one club/company.

Of course, there are temporary advantages to whoever is playing Celtic, which might be why other clubs remain silent on the issue of what is actually match fixing, an accusation also levelled at another club from ibrox just a few short years ago.

The orange clearly hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

Last night at Ibrox, the familar face of John Beaton popped up again. He was largely ineffective in the first half, and it looked like he was going to be substituted at one point, with a youngster from the training grounds of Lanarkshire lined up for his debut, but Beaton came through in the end giving a soft free kick  and a soft penalty to allow his team to snatch a point.

The penalty…..

Never a penalty pic.twitter.com/XICoqxDyj7

— Enigmaticbhoy (@enigmaticbhoy) October 27, 2021

You get the feeling that Beaton was waiting for an opportunity, as the “rangers ” player seems to appeal as an afterthought.

And remember what the diary said about the perception of bias….Alfredo Morelos was booked for diving minutes later…he thought the referee would have given him the foul, but Beaton apparently felt he couldn;t get away with another .

Evening up the stats after the event, a common feature of officials behaviour for years.

In the media, experts, well, maybe thats not the right word, such as Kris Boyd said it was soft, and although BBC Sportscene rallied to the cause and said it was a stonewaller,  punishable with a prison sentence, there were rumblings on the radio…

Well, not exactly a rumbling. After the pundits on Sportsound concluded that it was a soft penalty, Chick young, unsure who he had to buy a pint for later that evening, asked who the referee was.

The silence that follwed the name ” john Beaton ” tells you what they were thinking, but were afraid to say.

And there, in a nut shell, is the problem.

Because if anyone does say anything, the referees willthrow their toys out of the pram again, and we’ll have to get foreign refs in, and that won’t do at all.

Yet frank;y, it’s the only solution to a problem that threatens to damage our game beyond repair.

With the SFA pulling out all the stops to ensure the survival of a second ibrox entity, safe in the knowledge they did all they could last time round, and almost certainly carrying a similar level of immunity from investigation and prosecution, an already fragile financial footing could well be destroyed just as it seems the game on the park is improving,.

Of course, healthy competition isn’t in the business plan for the league, the SFA and it’s sponsors and investors, but with one club/company doing it’s best to put a stop to any thought of progress, there’s a real fear that they might drag the rest of us down with them this time.

One wonders if this was on the agenda when the east coast clubs met to discuss things a few weeks ago.

Frankly, if it wasn’t, it;s time it was, and with Dermot Desmond starting to look over his shoulder at the gathering numbers  of Celtic fans who are unhappy with the way he’s allowed the corruption to infect our own club, maybe there are changes afoot.

If we are to change anything though, lets start with the referees.

For example, we could hire some real ones.

At the very least we should be asking why one team, when it’s struggling, can rely on either a penalty or the sending off of an opposition player to ease the pressure.

As DerStenchKaput said on Twitter…

5 times in the last 8 league games that The Rangers have gone behind. Cue 3 penalties and 1 first half sending off to get them back into 4 of those 5.

That’s a hell of a statistic. The implication is they’ll get help when they need it.

So much so that I’ll wager that the bookies weren’t taking wagers on it happening last night…and when bookies won’t take bets on something, that’s because they know it’s rigged.

It;s a long time since Craig Levein told it like it is, and it’s time someone else spoke up.