When I walked out of Easter Road on Saturday afternoon I t was with a mixture of emotions, firstly about losing a game we should have won, disappointed in our first half display, and anger at once again the match officials playing a major part in us losing the match, the match officials are getting used to the new technology of VAR, and now that they have had it for a couple of seasons, and had a bit of practice, they now know that they can still “BLATANTLY CHEAT” Celtic in certain situations, they have also worked out how to stifle our fast attacking football.
I would love to know just exactly how much time was wasted by the Hibs keeper Jordan Smith, on Saturday we would be lucky if the ball was actually in play for any more than about fifty minutes, at £34 per ticket that is some overcharge, imagine going to watch a ninety-minute play in a theatre, and the show only lasted fifty minutes, there would be carnage amongst the audience. Then we have “Serial Cheat” Steven Mc Lean, this guy has a long history of cheating Celtic, he’s a well know bluenose, but still get to decide the fate of Celtic numerous times during the season.
Mc Lean did all in his power to stop Celtic playing the game at speed, all the stupid wee niggly things like retaking a free kick three yards from where it was taken, the same with throw-in’s. After Alistair Johnston received treatment for a head knock, he made AJ leave the pitch by the shortest route behind the goal, which meant he was as far away as possible from his position coming back on, fast forward about three Hibs substitutions, each one left the pitch by the longest route, so obviously wasting the maximum amount of time, Callum actually challenged him on it.
The biggest decision of the game was in the hands of arguably the most useless match official in Scotland, and you have to be really bad to merit that title. The decision Alan Muir made to disallow our equalising goal by Daizen was probably made in some Masonic Hall somewhere. Muir holds the title for the worst case of refereeing blindness ever, for his denial of a Celtic penalty at Hampden Park in the cup semi-final against Inverness Caley Thistle, ably abetted that day by non-other than Steven Mc Lean, a decision that denied Celtic the opportunity to win a Treble under Ronny Deila.
I wonder how Willie Collum is going to explain this one, will we have the audio of his conversation with Mc Lean? Of all the pictures and video’s, I’ve seen, the ball looks in according to the rules of any part of the ball being on the line. What really astounds me is this, they have admitted that the picture was taken from the eighteen-yard line, now you can go to any scientist, at any University, and I’m pretty sure they would say that it is impossible to judge the position of the ball, except from directly along the bye-line, or from directly above the ball. There is an old saying that “there are none so blind as those who won’t see” basically Muir called it out because he wanted it to be out. Back to Mc Lean, he has the final decision, so he could have decided to back his Linesman, and his own opinion, but he didn’t, why? Because he wanted it to be out as well. Whether it was out or not did not matter, stopping Celtic is all that matters.
Celtic normally do all their business with the SFA privately, they don’t go shouting to the anti-Celtic media, but I think enough is enough, unless someone from the SFA can show clear photographic pictures that prove it was out, then there needs to consequences for the Muir and Mc Lean, and we need to make that public through our own media channels. I have already spoken to Michael Nicholson, and will speak to him again tonight, as I’m sure other Celtic Supporters will do. Thanks to St Mirren we maintained our lead, but make no mistake, the next job for the SFA and their match officials will be “Operation stop the Treble”. I can say this for my part, I would be telling the SFA, that they will get no co-operation from Celtic, unless we are contractually obligated to do so, and should mean in every aspect of our dealings.
Glasgow’s still Green and White.
