It’s time refs put a halt to hatchet men, says Goldson

CONNOR GOLDSON has called for referees to take tougher action against the hatchet men who are stifling Scottish football. Hearts striker Steven MacLean was booked for a late challenge on the Rangers centre-back before being substituted to avoid a first-half red card in Sunday’s Betfred Cup semi-final success for Steven Gerrard’s side. Goldson believes that case was merely symptomatic of a wider issue in the Scottish game, which tolerates dangerous or repeated fouls that would lead to swifter sanctions in other countries. The former Brighton defender stresses neither he nor Rangers have any issue with matching up to physical opponents. But he drew a comparison with his time playing for Shrewsbury in England’s

League Two as he argued that match officials should be doing more to offer protection and help raise standards. ‘Scottish football, in general, is quite physical and it takes the foreign boys a little bit of time to adjust to it but the referees have to try to make sure people aren’t getting hurt,’ said Goldson. ‘And for Scottish football to improve, the referees have to take action against the ridiculous challenges. ‘It’s fine being physical — we’re all physical players and physical teams — but they can’t get away with yellow cards for elbows and nasty tackles where they want to leave a mark just to show they are the ones who are being aggressive and they are up for it. ‘That’s not really football but we deal with it and keep playing — and if teams want to do it, then we keep accepting it and it’s our responsibility to get past that and play our own game. ‘Personally, having played in England, I feel it’s only in Scotland you get away with some of the stuff you do up here. You can make six or seven fouls in Scotland and not get a yellow card but those little fouls disrupt the whole rhythm of the game. ‘And that’s all they want to do but in England or Europe, if you make one or two of those fouls, then you get a yellow card and can’t do it for the rest of the game. ‘I played in the lower leagues in England and it was very similar — League Two in England is much the same — so I was quite used to it having moved up the leagues down there. I learned as a young boy that I had to be physical and get used to it.’