BROWN TELLS ‘FRUSTRATED’ CELTIC TO GET OVER IT
AS a Rangers diehard who once saw Treble dreams evaporate in the wake of a refereeing error that favoured Celtic, John Brown takes a predictably wry view of the anguish emanating from Parkhead in recent days. In 1989, Brown was part of the Ibrox side which contested an Old Firm Scottish Cup final with two trophies already banked. He was involved in a touchline tussle with Roy Aitken in which the Celtic skipper seized the ball and took a throw-in that should have gone the other way. Ten seconds later — after a defensive blunder from Gary Stevens — Joe Miller had fired home the only goal of the game. Twenty six years on, Celtic’s own hopes of a clean sweep disappeared amid intense controversy. They have written to the SFA seeking ‘to understand’ how the match officials failed to spot the hand Josh Meekings used to block a Leigh Griffiths shot in their semifinal defeat to Inverness. Brown views the whole furore as ‘a bit of sour grapes’ that speaks of the frustration within his old rivals. ‘It’s hard for officials given the pace of the game,’ said Brown. ‘Celtic have been frustrated because they have not managed to win a Treble.’ Brown could rant at refs with the best of them during his time in charge of Dundee, not least when Alan Muir was fooled by a Peter Pawlett dive and awarded Aberdeen a penalty that effectively relegated the Dens Park side. Muir was the extra official behind the goal on Sunday and has shared the brunt of Celtic fans’ wrath with ref Steven McLean. ‘It basically put us down that day but it was one of those things, a referee’s interpretation,’ reflected a more sanguine Brown on his own brush with Muir. ‘It is crazy now. The boy Steven McLean is a right good referee. Results went against me when he was refereeing and I was at Dundee. But he is a good ref, an honest guy. If he had seen it, he would have given the penalty. ‘It is impossible for the guy on the line to see it (the handball). You see the angle of the ref, there is a defender in front of him. It is that quick a reaction. You have to judge it on what you see. If you don’t see it, you can’t give it.’ And what of 1989? Despite the impact of that throw-in call, Brown still believes Rangers only had themselves to blame. ‘Bob Valentine was the ref — that’s why I’ve never sent any Valentine’s cards,’ he quipped. ‘But Rangers were bad that day. Celtic weren’t much better but we did not deserve to win it.’
JOHN BROWN was speaking to promote fan ownership group Rangers First which has more than 13, 400 members. Fans can sign up at www.rangersfirst.org