BOWHADTOGO
I’m surprised Robertson didn’t show red for hit on Tierney
I TOUCHED on this briefly in my column last week about how referees need to be alert when officiating at Celtic games until the end of the season.
Let me expand on this. Inverness player Iain Vigurs should have walked for a shocker of a tackle on Scott Sinclair in the Scottish Cup last weekend.
And Hoops full-back Kieran Tierney was the victim of a poor challenge from Motherwell striker Ryan Bowman at Celtic Park on Saturday.
I am surprised referee Don Robertson didn’t show the boy a red card. It was a sending off all day long.
The Bowman incident was similar to the studs-up challenge by Rangers player Michael O’Halloran on Motherwell’s Carl McHugh at Fir Park in the Scottish Cup tie a few weeks ago.
If Robertson had applied the letter of the law Bowman would have walked.
He caught Tierney high on his thigh and knee area and dragged his studs down, perhaps due to inexperience on his part.
I’m sure he meant no malice but it was the way he went into it. The only explanation I can offer is that Don didn’t get a good view and erred on the side of caution.
Celtic are playing some good, entertaining football, chasing a domestic Treble and eyeing up an “Invincible” season.
I go back to the lovely goal they scored at McDiarmid Park against St Johnstone to make it 5-2.
I don’t subscribe to the theory that Celtic are showboating and taking the mickey out of their opponents. I don’t think Brendan Rodgers would allow that for a start.
It is purely and simply a cracking goal with some neat tricks and flicks from some of the Celtic players – and that is entertainment pure and simple.
Football teams are looking to entertain the fans and play some good stuff if they can. That’s what Celtic are doing right now and we have to look at it from that point of view.
At Hampden Park in 1999 during the Scottish Cup semi-final Rangers winger Andrei Kanchelskis stood on the ball and gave a salute during a match against Ayr.
That was showboating of the highest order and I could understand any opponent wanting to have a pop or a dig at an opposition player for doing something like that.
Celtic are not going down that route and playing keepie-uppie and the like as that would be a total lack of respect to opponents.
The frustration for teams like Inverness last week and Motherwell this weekend is they are not getting on the ball as much as they’d like because Celtic are playing a high-pressing, attacking game that Brendan was synonymous with during his time at both Swansea and Liverpool.
Opponents are not getting the opportunity to get the ball back.
Referees have to look at that and I used to love managers who shouted at me when I was refereeing: “Charlie, protect the ball players.”
If red card tackles are flying in they have to be punished. There is a big difference between trying to stop Celtic playing and kicking them off the park.
Inverness overstepped the mark and the Bowman challenge falls into the same category. It could have been a lot worse for Tierney and he has just returned from a serious injury. All referees want to officiate at Celtic games at the moment because they will be entertained, which is a huge bonus for any whistler.
Sometimes you drive to a game and you think it might be a hard match to referee and it ends up 6-0.
Other times you believe it will be one-way traffic and it is 0-0 with 10 minutes to go – it really tests you.
However, you want to be involved in those because you become a man-manager rather than a referee.
Refereeing Celtic at home there might not be a lot to do in terms of flashpoints, controversies and incidents because the hosts will have a lot of possession.
So as a referee it is all about your game-management technique.
Celtic away tends to see them come out and play and the home side try to match that as well as combat it. The refereeing experience is then totally different.
That helps referees build up their experience in how to handle different game situations.
A perfect example was that Aberdeen wanted the advantage played at all times against Kilmarnock yesterday. I am surprised Andrew Dallas didn’t pick up on that because the game was very stop-start.
If I’d been the man in the middle I wouldn’t have blown up for every single foul because Aberdeen were trying to build some momentum in order to try to get themselves back in the game.
Players will respect referees more for allowing a match to flow. Trust me – I have been there.
LAST-GASP DONS DO IT