{"id":6984,"date":"2015-04-20T10:34:23","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T09:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2015-04-20T10:34:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-20T09:34:23","slug":"celtic-diary-monday-april-20-thoughts-on-the-referee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=6984","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Monday April 20: Thoughts On The Referee&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I could be diplomatic, I could even be gracious to Inverness, who are the innocent party here.<\/p>\n<p>I could criticise Ronny Deila, and the players, for allowing the controversial refereeing-controversial, aye, okay, -to allow them to lose a little bit of concentration, but thats not why celtic got beat.<\/p>\n<p>Celtic got beat because the referee decided that he wanted them to.<\/p>\n<p>Steven Maclean denied a third penalty claim in the first half when Inverness defender Josh Meekings saved a goalbound header from Leigh Griffiths. He actually put his arm up to block it.<\/p>\n<p>Lets consider the Inverness view;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content clearfix\" style=\"color: #292f33;\">\n<div class=\"permalink-header\">\n<div class=\"follow-bar\">\n<div class=\"user-actions btn-group not-following not-muting  \" data-user-id=\"145818949\" data-screen-name=\"ICTFC\" data-name=\"Official ICTFC\" data-protected=\"false\">\n<div class=\"dropdown \"><button class=\"user-dropdown dropdown-toggle js-dropdown-toggle js-link js-tooltip btn plain-btn\" style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #66757f;\" title=\"More user actions\" type=\"button\"><span class=\"user-dropdown-icon Icon Icon--cog Icon--medium\"><span class=\"visuallyhidden\">User Actions<\/span><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<p><button class=\"user-actions-follow-button js-follow-btn follow-button btn\" style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #292f33;\" type=\"button\"><span class=\"button-text follow-text\">\u00a0Follow<\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"account-group js-account-group js-action-profile js-user-profile-link js-nav\" style=\"color: #0035ad;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ICTFC\" data-user-id=\"145818949\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"avatar js-action-profile-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/491480247850659840\/g_uKwIG9_bigger.png\" alt=\"\" \/><strong class=\"fullname js-action-profile-name show-popup-with-id\" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"\">Official ICTFC<span class=\"Icon Icon--verified Icon--small\" style=\"color: #88c9f9;\"><span class=\"u-hiddenVisually\">Verified account<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u200f<span class=\"username js-action-profile-name\" style=\"color: #8899a6;\" data-aria-label-part=\"\"><s style=\"color: #b1bbc3;\">@<\/s><b>ICTFC<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\"><em>Griffiths shot saved on the line by Meekings. Good lad. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">I saw it. you saw it, but did the man in the middle ?<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Lets look at the referees angle;<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CC9cTUzW0AATiC9.jpg:large\" alt=\"Embedded image permalink\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Alright, both the referee and the &#8220;assistant &#8220;<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">And lets go back to Tuesdays diary for MacLeans views on handball&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/etims.net\/?attachment_id=6957\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6957\">Maclean explains the handball rule.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">We should have known then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">You don&#8217;t need to bribe or encourage a referee to get the result you want. Simply pick one who won&#8217;t need any encouragement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Maclean doesn&#8217;t need any encouragement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">He has refereed four celtic games this season. We&#8217;ve lost three of them. Including yesterday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">We&#8217;ve only lost five all season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Now, had the SFA thought about this, they would not have chosen him for this one. Just to avoid a possible controversy later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Obviously they decided that it wasn&#8217;t worth it, and so he got the nod.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Or the handshake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Stewart Regan later said that they must have missed the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">No, they didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Assistant Alan Muir is clearly seen saying something into his mic afterwards, but MacLean ignored it, or acted on it, depending on what was said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Whatever was said, however, matters little. Muir saw the incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">And so did MacLean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Had the penalty been awarded, then Celtic would have been playing ten men, and been at least one up going into the break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">The way the game is played in the second half changes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Theres no glossing over it. MacLean is either an inept official, or he is a cheat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">I&#8217;ve made my mind up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Apart from all that, it was an engrossing game, especially when Craig Gordon had a rush of blood to the head and got himself sent off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">The life;ine provided by MacLean was eagerly grasped by the highlanders, and credit to them for getting on with it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Ronny Deila made the mistake of removing James Forrest to allow for the introduction of Lukasz Zaluska, when arguably it would have been better to continue without a keeper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0Forrest had been Celtics most lively and inventive forward, refusing to be intimidated by a physical Inverness side. Others who had been fouled let it get to them, especially Virgil van dijk, who was outstanding at times, but got too involved in the niggly side of the game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0When Forrest went off, Inverness began to gain more and more possession of the ball, and the hoops struggled to get it back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">When aleksandr tonev ( absolutely no capital letters ) was introduced to the fray, there was a feeling that Deila was out of ideas, and true to expectations, Tonev was bloody hopeless.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0Leigh Griffiths got little or no service, and the decision to play Commons and Johansen together looked to have backfired, but not as much as the decision to allow Liam Henderson out on loan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">What he offers to the team was exactly what was missing yesterday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Commons was out of sorts, Johansen was forced to do all the running, and nothing seemed to go right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0Celtic should have been able to handle it better, and cope with anything Inverness had.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">They didn&#8217;t, and thats that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">However, make no mistake. MacLeans decision was the match changer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">This all might seem a little bitter, but I&#8217;m calling it as i saw it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Its a shame that the media won&#8217;t. and the SFA will ignore it. Their official match twitter didn&#8217;t even mention the handball\u00a0\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">So, what now ?<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Does the club ignore it ?<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">We should at least be calling for an enquiry. Or an explanantion from MacLean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Fans of other clubs will nod knowingly and say that these things even up over the course of a season, and that Celtic get more than their fair share of dodgy decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0Perhaps we do, but for them to even up over a season it would have to be extended by about ten years, and thats just for MacLean.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">The question is, or at least the one that should be asked, are referees biased or simply incompetent ?<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0Or is the bias hiding in plain sight under the cover of incompetence ?<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0I think its the case that most Scottish referees are incompetent, and the rest are biased and incompetent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Well, not the rest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Just MacLean , really, who no doubt tomorrow will be in the papers complaining that his life is in danger and he&#8217;s received threats. to deflect attention away from the real issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0I don&#8217;t feel any malice toward MacLean, far from it. Pity, maybe. but \u00a0not malice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0Theres still a league to be won, I suppose, and a lot to look forward to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CC-g62OWMAEIuri.jpg:large\" alt=\"Embedded image permalink\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\u00a0No doubt i&#8217;ll be back to my cheery self tomorrow, and I&#8217;m going to round off my morning and lighten my mood by watching the new Seth MacFarlane film, which is called &#8221; A Million Ways To Cheat In The West Of Scotland. &#8220;<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">Or something like that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\n<p class=\"js-tweet-text tweet-text\" lang=\"en\" style=\"font-weight: 300; color: #292f33;\" data-aria-label-part=\"0\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I could be diplomatic, I could even be gracious to Inverness, who are the innocent party here. I could criticise Ronny Deila, and the players,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/joke.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1OE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6986,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions\/6986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}