Our Scottish referees warning Ange Postecoglou overlooked until Celtic’s trip to Clackmannshire

Ange Postecoglou has come out strongly this week when it comes to the protection, or lack thereof, of his players from Scottish match officials, and now the club has come out on social media to reiterate the welcome and overdue points the manager is making.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference Ange Postecoglou showed his displeasure at the protection afforded to his players in a public show of concern.

“You want referees to provide that protection for both sets of players, both from deliberate actions but sometimes just by reckless action.’

“There needs to be some sort of control out there so that the players are confident that things aren’t going to get out of control.

“I’ll be honest, I told some of the lads towards the end of the game not to bother going into tackles but just to look after themselves because I didn’t want any more injuries because I just didn’t feel there was control of that environment.

“This is not me looking at a referee’s performance in terms of the outcome or the result. This is about protection of the players, protection of the environment.

“We had a player who got a serious injury, we had a couple of others who were lucky to escape from that, so that’s why I was disappointed with the way the night panned out.”

With the club often keen to keep concerns in-house and operate through back-channels, this is the closest thing to someone standing up for Celtic we’ve seen in a long time. Indeed, the closest we’ve had this season was Chairman Ian Bankier’s ‘deep concern’ quotes at last year’s AGM, yet little has changed with that approach.

Instead, more often than not any criticism of Scottish officialdom is airbrushed from history as we saw with Neil Lennon’s post Dubai criticisms not being aired publicly on Celtic’s usual social media platforms.

Is this a sign that Celtic are at last paying attention to the sort officiating the Celtic Star Editor warned Postecoglou and then CEO Dom McKay of back in June?

You’d like to think this is a shot across the bows of the SFA from the club, and if the manager’s thoughts are being made public, rather than being left on the cutting room floor, it points to a more pro-active and public stand from the club rather than the turn the other cheek tactic that has been so ineffective for so long.

More of this may be required, but it is a welcome change of tack.

Niall J

About Author

As a Bellshill Bhoy I was taken to my first Celtic game in the summer of 1987. It was Billy McNeill’s return to Celtic Park as manager and Celtic lost 5-1 to Arsenal . I thought I was a jinx, I think my Grandfather might have thought the same. It was the finest gift anyone ever gave me when he walked me through Parkhead's gates.

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