This weekend, Inverness Caledonian Thistle won a thrilling Scottish Cup Semi Final against Celtic 3-2 after extra time.
The win will set up a final with Falkirk, who sneaked past my Hibees 1-0 in the other Semi Final the previous day.
However, controversy reigns in regard to Celtic’s defeat, thanks mostly to an incident involving Caley Thistle player Josh Meekings in the first half.
Meekings clearly obstructed a Leigh Griffiths header that was goal bound with his hand. This should have led to a Celtic penalty and a red card for Meekings. Instead, the decision wasn’t given and this has led to much unrest amongst the Celtic support.
At the time of the handball, Celtic were 1-0 up and in control. Should the penalty have been given, Celtic would have had an excellent chance to enter the second half 2-0 up with an extra man advantage.
Now, there’s no doubt the decision was a bad one. Referee Steve McLean had a decent enough view of the incident to give the penalty, but chose not to. It was a bad decision, but in my opinion that’s all it was. However, amongst certain areas of the Celtic support, the desire to be the victim has once again reared its ugly head.
The following is a direct copy and paste from comments on The Guardian match report (Link at the bottom of the article). It was written by poster aaronbeck
· Celtic have only lost 5 games in Scotland this season. Steven McLean has been the referee for 3 of them.
Celtic's record without Steven McLean as referee: 30 wins, 5 draws, 2 defeats
Celtic's record with Steven McLean as referee: 1 win, 0 draws, 3 defeats
https://twitter.com/footballisfixed
Steven McLean's brother played for Rangers. He chose to represent Northern Ireland instead of his native Scotland.
The assistant referee did not 'fail to spot' the incident, as is evident from the video below. He can be seen excitedly repeating the same phrase into his microphone three times. He appears to be saying 'Its a Pen!''Its a Pen!' 'Its a Pen!'
http://videocelts.com/2015/04/blogs/latest-news/did-alan-muir-shout-penalty-penalty-to-stevie-mclean
Mr McLean needs to explain why he chose to ignore what his assistant was telling him.
The SFA needs to explain why, given his background and track record, they selected Mr McLean to referee an important match involving Celtic. (End of quote)
So yeah, the reason for the bad descision wasn’t just human error but a concerted plot to deny Celtic advancement to the final. It’s a giant conspiracy to keep them out of Scottish Footballs showpiece event
I would ask Mr Beck, if that is his real name, one question however. Why would the SFA not want Celtic in the final?
Seriously, why wouldn’t they?
Out of all the possible finals, the SFA has ended up with the least marketable one possible. Falkirk and Inverness are both good sides with dedicated support, but honestly, if Hampden is anything more than half full for that final I’ll be amazed. You’ll be able to hunt wild deer in the atrium FFS.
The best final on offer by far would have been Hibs Vs Celtic. It would have presented the best chance to fill the stadium and would have also provided the best TV ratings. It also would have likely produced the best actual football match to boot.
Rather than prove that nefarious powers were at work to fix the final, I would argue both results are the best argument you could give for proving otherwise. This is quite possibly the worst final you could have out of all the possible options. Again, no offence intended to Falkirk and Thistle, but their support is smaller in number than the two Irish giants.
I have no doubt that the match between Falkirk and Thistle has all the possibility of being an exciting match, but I’m a football fan and can view it as such. To your average man/woman/educated asparagus plant on the street, this final is not a box office final. It will most surely do poorly in the ratings comparatively to what it would have done with Celtic in the match instead.
Celtic supporters need to realise that rather than being the plucky club fighting underneath against the establishment, they now ARE the establishment. They are the biggest and best team in the country. When decisions go against them now, you can rest assured it’s because the referee has had a mare and not because of some kind of grand conspiracy to keep them out of showpiece events.
The SFA wants, nay NEEDS, Celtic to be the featured attraction right now because they are a proven draw. I bet many an SFA official was pulling his or her hair out when that third Caley goal went in. They might as well have burned a bag full of money in an oil drum.
I, for one, am glad we have two slightly less fashionable teams fighting it out to decide who wins the cup, but a lot of people really won’t.
Celtic fans need to take defeat in their stride and move on. Every time they lose can’t always be the result of dirty pool. It’s getting to the point of ridiculousness now. The ref made a bad decision, you lost, that’s all there is to it. Nine times out of ten, you’ll get decisions going for you as you’re a big club. On this occasion, there was the perfect storm of ineptitude from the officials that led to your downfall. Get over it
Peace Out
http://www.theguardian.com/discussion/p/47kvd
No comments:
Post a Comment