Junior boss suspended
THE manager of a football team involved in an on-pitch disturbance has been suspended.
Paul McColl was told to take time away from Cambuslang Rangers while a full investigation into the incident is carried out.
THE manager of a South Lanarkshire football team has been suspended after a fight broke out on the pitch.
Cambuslang Rangers have asked Paul McColl to step back from the club for an unspecified period of time.
The referee called for police after he was reportedly assaulted and threatened on the pitch during a game between Glenafton Athletic and Cambuslang Rangers on Saturday.
The Cambuslang side have now revealed the managed has been suspended while a full investigation takes place.
Mr McColl was gunned down in Cambuslang earlier this year. The 48-year-old had to undergo facial surgery and was in a lifethreatening condition following the incident in February. He returned to manage his junior team months later.
Bosses have released a full statement on the incident.
CAMBUSLANG Rangers boss Paul McColl is a man given to venting his undoubted passion for the game, as anyone who has seen him frantically patrolling his dugout area on match days will surely testify.
And few would argue that being able to transfer this fire in his belly to the Lang players has been a major factor behind the Somervell Park outfit’s long awaited return to the West Region top flight following three consecutive promotions.
Fans have delighted in this rise back to Junior prominence – but now McColl appears to have overstepped the mark during his side’s Premiership game away to Glenafton on Saturday.
The Glens were already 1-0 ahead through a Daniel Orsi score when the referee awarding them a debatable penalty just after the half-hour mark.
This sparked shameful scenes which saw centre-back Scott Faulds red-carded for reputedly squaring up to the whistler and appearing to make a head-butt gesture.
And with Glens midfielder Findlay Frye waiting to take the spot-kick, Scott was subjected to a torrent of protests from furious Cambuslang players, leading to Ryan Finnie getting his marching orders.
Watching these events had McColl “going tonto” on the sidelines – and then stepping onto the field to give vent to his feelings resulted in a heated confrontation with Scott that ended with the Category 2 official abandoning the game and stating the police were to be called.
The whistler is said to have sustained an injury during an alleged assault.
McColl had departed Loch Park by the time officers arrived on the scene.
McColl is already contesting touchline bans imposed by West Region officials this season, one involving the same Calum Scott’s dismissal of him in an early-November clash with Irvine Meadow [the whistler also sent off Faulds that day].
McColl’s claims of an ongoing vendetta against him and Cambuslang players has led to SJFA chiefs deciding his appeals can be heard by East Region disciplinary chiefs.
On Christmas Eve, Cambuslang announced that McColl had been suspended from the club.
“With immediate effect, assistant managers Jimmy Kerr, Billy Campbell and Derek Carmichael will assume responsibility for the running of all aspects of the football team,” read a Cambuslang Rangers statement. “This is a result of Saturday’s alleged incident regarding our manager, Paul McColl, and the referee, Calum Scott.
“These events require full exhaustive and impartial investigation. Mr McColl will therefore take time away from the club while this investigation is ongoing. Cambuslang Rangers, SJFA and Police Scotland are working collectively to uncover the truth, and in doing so, to alleviate unfounded rumours.”
Speaking before the announcement of his suspension, the Lang gaffer, 49, insisted: “I wear my heart on my sleeve for Cambuslang Rangers and we as a club appear to be treated differently to other West Region clubs this season and I would like to know why.
“It’s been well publicised how I was shot in the face away from football yet when we played Beith down there and I grappled with a fan who came over the wall to get at me, I was fined for my behaviour... really?
“And we played Renfrew in a game where the referee has dished out 16 yellow and four red cards yet his officiating is not called into question, but I am given a six-game ban for throwing the ball onto the park and, before you ask, it was underhand!
“The farce continues against Irvine Meadow where we lose two players and I’m sent packing for foul and abusive language yet I have only asked the linesman to get the referee to come and talk to me, so I truly believe there are grounds for thinking Cambuslang Rangers are being harshly treated in comparison to other teams,” he added.
‘‘ It’s been well publicised how I was shot in the face away from football