SENTINELCELTS

It was another traditional weekend in Scottish football, the big two won alongside more referring controversy. It’s getting quite easy to predict and Mondays articles almost write themselves these days.
 
As per usual the blue half of the city were handed the early kickoff, thanks Highland Paddy for drawing attention to the scandalous amount of times our club are placed in this catch-up position.
https://sentinelcelts.com/2023/01/28/heres-a-look-at-what-you-could-have-won/comment-page-6/#comment-258959
 
We all know by now what happened at St Johnstone or rather what didn’t happen, red cards which clearly change games.

 
Callum Davidson rightly hit out at the officials post match, he held his tongue somewhat to avoid a fine, but we can clearly add him to the list of aggrieved managers. The media of course downplayed the affair and took the cowardly option of hiding behind Jim Goodwin’s stacking.
The governing bodies will be delighted there’s an alternative news story available to deflect some heat, which was palpable across all Internet platforms come Saturday evening.
 
Sunday was not without its own controversy, with a penalty overturned which is a rarity.

To my mind there’s just enough wiggle room to overturn the spotkick decision as,,,
there’s a hint of offside in the buildup,
the keeper is clearly focused on the ball and indeed gets the touch he’s aiming for.
On the other hand the defenders elbow is hindering the striker while pushing him, and the striker is clearly contacted first by the goalies left hand.
The case for both yes and no could be made.
 
But that’s the point. When reffing our rivals the calls against go ignored by VAR, while anything around the opposition box gets flagged to study for potential transgressions to award the blues.
Meanwhile every Celtic goal or possible handball at the back gets scrutinized with the aim of finding any hint of a foul.
There’s clear double standards at play with decisions, VAR, fixture scheduling, penalty awards, fouls against, maybe more.
 
Which makes me wonder, have the officials gone rogue?
In the nefarious cesspit that is Scottish football it’s not a stretch of the imagination to envisage personal disputes and vendettas, lodge membership being placed before business acumen, even power struggles leading to vindictive sabotage.
Is that what we are watching,
Crawford Allen launching his own version of a smear campaign through his underlings?
After the recent high-powered confab regarding refs and VAR, the weekend just past felt like a big EFF YOU to the Professional Game Board and presumably their ‘orders’ for improvement.
 
Anyhow, the Champions pulled out the win to take one step closer to retaining their title. It must have been a strong halftime speech by the Greek Australian because his team visibly moved up a gear after the break and scored the winning goals.
How Jota turned that beautiful cross in is beyond me, the angle was too acute, but bhoy wonder pulled off the seemingly impossible to silence the critics.
 
I felt the initial selection was wrong,,for instance dropping Yuki after two games doesn’t make much sense, similarly benching our form player Maeda was questionable, Jota and Abada as the wide duet have been found lacking before, however I was delighted to see Matt replaced by Mooy who is a more rounded player. Oh is a big unit, very serious and determined, great qualities to bring onto the park, great to see him in the mix now.
We had enough in the tank to overcome the ref and stubborn opponents and that’s what counts in the end.
 
Points like yesterday’s help dictate where the league trophy ends up, the Parkhead trophy cabinet.
Refs like the weekends help dictate where the sport is going, the doldrums.
 
By Mahe
sentinelcelts@gmail.com