Scott Brown offers the occasional day release from his back pocket to allow Andy Halliday to play for Hearts and to earn some extra corn from his podcast appearances, but it may be time for Broony to consider revoking that pass, just to save the lad from embarrassing himself any further.
Halliday’s comments as reported in Daily Record that the reaction to Bobby Madden’s – his podcast pal – weekend refereeing performance was ‘most overreactive ever’, could only be viewed as reasonable through the tint of blue specs – something Madden absolutely did not request as his annual freebie from his employer’s sponsor.
“Listen, I don’t think Bobby Madden had a great game. It’s probably one of the most overreactive responses to a refereeing performance I have ever seen. I have seen worst refereeing performances in the last fortnight than I seen yesterday.
“I think you could tell from the first couple of minutes he was trying to let stuff go, which can often happen in these games.”
There has been little suggestion anywhere that Celtic deserved anything but defeat from Sunday’s Scottish Cup final, but it is far from an overreaction to suggest Bobby Madden refereed the match so poorly as to have a direct impact on the outcome.
The Celtic Star has already highlighted the four challenges that would have warranted yellow cards in their own right for John Lundstram this morning. Every one is a yellow card in their own right for any other self-respecting referee, but not for Bobby Madden. Yet Callum McGregor attempting, but failing to, trip an opponent was immediately cautioned.
Madden’s performance was littered with inconsistencies – so much so that Pat Bonner, commenting post-match on the BBC, stated such tactics on the European stage would have left Celtic facing nine opponents.
At the start you could have considered he was waiting for agitated minds to calm down and allowed the odd over exuberant tackle to pass without rebuke – as Halliday hints referees often take such an approach in derby games. Yet it soon became apparent tolerance was going to be offered to only one side whilst the other had carte blanche to foul at will. Indeed, the gameplan of the opposition seemed so reliant on such an approach it was as if they’d been forewarned to expect such leniency.
As such the fallout to Madden’s adjudication on Sunday from many who comment on Scottish Football – including those without skin in this game, such as Michael Stewart – is something that bears up to scrutiny. For Andy Halliday to suggest otherwise smacks of cronyism and a performance of a referee viewed through the same blue tinted glasses Bobby Madden didn’t request from Specsavers.
It really is time Broony popped Halliday back into the pocket of his dodgy golfing breeks and took him for a long, long walk around 18 holes.
Niall J
Watch this…
Shows just how corrupt our game is when a known supporter of a club is allowed to referee their matches, one who blatantly favours them and does not protect their opponents!
He(Bobby Madden) lost the plot in the Dundee v ranger2 game a month ago when Dundee took an early lead, desperation written all over him as ranger2 struggled to get a shot in(took them over 40 minutes to get a shot on target, even with him awarding them a nonsense penalty) and he started booking Dundee players for nothing challenges; it was quite a sight, and showed his true colours!
Bassey, among others in the ranger2 team, were rugby tackling Celtic players from kickoff, grabbing them from behind(a bookable offence) right in front of him, and he let it slide; he actually awarded ranger2 a freekick after Bassey, who repeatedly done this throughout the game, grabbed Rogic from behind as Rogic waltzed away from him on the ball!
The man is a joke, as are the people who employ him; they’d have to be the most naive people in human history not to see him for who he is, and the way he conducts himself, when officiating ranger2 games!
We didn’t need to wait until after the game to know how he was going to act; if we were a few goals up and cruising, he’d ‘act’ fairly, or at least make an effort to be seen to be, but in a tight game, he’d help ranger2 at every opportunity, and hinder Celtic, which is exactly what he done…he/its so transparent, and only idiots wouldn’t see it and him for what he is, and corrupt people would deflect from it!
It, our football governing body, is a travesty of epic corruption, and needs to be dealt with by a higher authority!
Always cheated never defeated that of course is the Celtic mantra. Never heard much about referees when you were on a 33 game inbeaten run. I am very surprised that there ever was a potato famine with the amount of chips you carry about on your shoulders
Over reactive responses? He forgets the reaction of his own manager, the BBC EBT team, Kris Boyd, Every Scottish paper and of course the head referee appearing on Radio all to discuss a very marginal, may or may not be offside goal v Hallidays team. Maybe that’s the “over reactive response he was talking about. Did he mention his mate Madden not sending him off for a brutal challenge on Cal Mac? Or for disallowing an onside goal? Or not giving a 100% penalty all in the same game? Thought not. Hallidays “selective” response says it all. One sevvie defending another cheating Sevvie.
Why was my comment removed? Why was the post mocking the famine left up but mine removed? . I addressed exactly what Halliday said and asking does he not remember the hysterical over reaction to a marginal offside that went against his team v Celtic.
It was in the spam folder, dug it out and it’s up now. HH