LET’S NOT FORGET THAT BROWN THE VICTIM IS OFTEN A NAUGHTY BHOY HIMSELF
THERE has not been such damaging intent contained within a stamp since Peter Lawwell started sending those letters to the late, lamented Stewart Regan about independent reviews, summer trips to Peru and Mexico and the SFA’s all-round uselessness. We always had an inkling Scott Brown was unpopular among his peers. That’s what is generally achieved by tackling like a bull in breeding season, winding people up and doing everything other than swaggering around on someone else’s manor with your cahunas out. But Ross County’s Andrew Davies went over the top in all sorts of ways with that eyewatering assault on them. You wouldn’t see meat and two veg treated so indelicately in a Cornish pasty factory. Brown and his manager Brendan Rodgers are perfectly justified in raising concerns in the wake of Davies’ inadequate two-match suspension.
The Parkhead captain’s assertion, though, that he would be banned for the season had he committed a similar challenge is weakened ever so slightly by the fact his last red card — for a reckless, if less malevolent, tackle — was actually reduced to a yellow on appeal by the SFA’s now-incomprehensible disciplinary system.
That foul on Ross County’s Liam Boyce, committed in an angry fug in Dingwall last April, probably flickered through Davies’ mind as he stomped on Brown with the venom and timing of a mongoose marking down a black mamba for dinner.
At least there will be no question of cold vengeance later today when Brown’s new role as poor victim will come under the microscope during Celtic’s trip to Hamilton — where his last appearance saw him accused of, erm, kicking Giannis Skondras in the face.
On second thoughts, someone had better tell the SFA compliance officer to set the video. If he still bothers with such a thing.