Former Referee Des Roache has had a go at Reo Hatate in the Daily Record and accused him of trying to win a spot kick by illegal means against St Mirren at Celtic park on Saturday.

Firstly for me Reo did go down too easy, and there is no way it was spot kick. Wether you can accuse him of cheating though is another matter as he was doing what many players do in that situation in that he was being ‘cute’ in trying to influence the referee into awarding a penalty.

Celtic v St Mirren – Reo Hatate right celebrates after scoring his sides first goal of the game during the Premiership match at Celtic Park, on Saturday April 13, 2024. Photo Jane Barlow

Ironically a St Mirren striker was guilty of the exact same offence in the first half of Saturday’s game, but conveniently that has been totally overlooked by former ref Roache, the Daily Record and the rest of the Scottish mainstream media.

Fabio Silva of Rangers ply-acts during the Scottish Premiership match between theRangers and Celtic at Ibrox S on April 07, 2024 (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Ironically the likes of Des weren’t seen or heard last week when we witnessed some of the most blatant cheating by a player in our game in recent years. Reo Hatate was in no way guilty of the embarrassing antics we witnessed from Fabio Silva last week, but the Scottish media have got to do their best to level things up I suppose.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy