Who stares wins

RODGERS AND McINNES READY THEIR MAN FOR TOMORROW’S HAMPDEN SHOWDOWN

THERE has been a lot of water under the bridge since I said that Celtic should pack their bags and head to England for a fair crack of the whip.

That comment came on the back of the tempestuous 1986 League Cup final, a game we lost 2-1 to Rangers and referee David Syme lost the plot.

In many ways so much of that frustration was a culmination of years and years of playing and managing and feeling that there was a genuine bias against Celtic from referees. I honestly felt that.

I could cite so many examples – and many of them in Cup finals too. There was the dubious sending off of Roy Aitken in the 1984 Scottish Cup final by Bob Valentine. Mark McGhee was so badly hurt in that challenge that after he’d spent a fair while rolling around the ground in abject agony that he got up and won the man-of-the-match award.

I signed Mark a year later so there were no hard feelings on my part. But still, I lived through a time when major decisions in big games definitely had an effect on proceedings. There was a real distraction too as players because it is very difficult to get your concentration back and focus on the game when you feel aggrieved at a decision going against you.

In 1970 as a player, Celtic had just beaten Leeds United

in the first leg of the semi-final of the European Cup just prior to the Scottish Cup final so we were and went into the Scottish Cup final as big favourites against Aberdeen.

Just as Celtic are now, we were going for a seventh successive piece of silverware and were also going for the treble for the second year running. But, again, there was a decision from the late Bobby Davidson that scunnered us. That all might sound like sour grapes now.

Big Jock Stein used to say to us that you almost had to rise above it and go and concentrate on the game but it was difficult not to get emotional about it.

Aberdeen were a good team and they maybe deserved to win it but there’s no doubt they had a bit of assistance too.

So, having experienced all of this in my own career at Celtic I do think I can indulge myself with a wry chuckle when I hear Rangers griping about referee Willie Collum and a perceived bias against the Ibrox club.

All of a sudden, the tables have turned. Didn’t it used to be Celtic who were told we were all paranoid?

I actually think that nowadays it is almost impossible for any referee to show clear bias because of the way that every decision is magnified.

There are cameras at every angle of the ground and any contentious moments can be watched from umpteen different viewpoints. There is also social media and things are far more under the microscope than they ever were.

That is not to say that there is not incompetence, which is an entirely different thing.

I just don’t think that you cam get away with so many of the things that went on in the past now.

People will point the finger and say that there’s me bleating on about refs again but I am way past the point of caring.

These were our career experiences that we lived through.

I honestly think that things have changed. Society has moved on a lot and the way that the media are so involved in the game shines a light on every decision.

I think we have come a long way since the games that I have referenced but I did think that events this week between the SFA and Rangers were just a little bit ironic.

I can indulge myself with a wry chuckle when I hear Rangers griping about Willie Collum