MANY of you will have seen the scenes at the end of Sunday’s Premiership match at Livingston’s Tony Macaroni Arena when there seemed to be some rage and anger among some of the players from the visiting side. This has become a tabloid story today and now the Livingston player Declan Gallagher has taken to social media to correct what has been alleged in the press.
“Based on the report in the Daily Record I thought only right to issue my own response,” Gallagher, a former Celtic youth player, stated.
“At no point did myself of any other Livingston player seek to taunt Rangers players over the result. As professional sportsmen we always aim to represent the sport and the club in the right light.
“However due to a few Rangers players refusing to shake hands at the final whistle with myself and team mates things did get heated. We are professional sportsmen who should act and respect our opposite numbers win, lose or draw.”
1/2 Based on the report in the Daily Record I thought only right to issue my own response. At no point did myself of any other Livingston player seek to taunt Rangers players over the result. As professional sportsmen we always aim to represent the sport and the club in the right pic.twitter.com/gv9iSOxX9J
— Declan Gallagher (@DeclanGalla) October 2, 2018
2/2 light. However due to a few Rangers players refusing to shake hands at the final whistle with myself and team mates things did get heated. We are professional sportsmen who should act and respect our opposite numbers win, lose or draw.
— Declan Gallagher (@DeclanGalla) October 2, 2018
The other major talking point from this match was the incident at the start of the second half when the Assistant lineman Calum Spence was struck from behind by a coin thrown by a Rangers supporter and had his head split open. Footage of the offender has also emerged and it is clear where he was standing in the ground.
In May 1999 a match official – referee Hugh Dallas – was truck by a coin at Celtic Park and the club were fined £45,000 by the SFA.
Yesterday Dallas, who is these days Uefa’s deputy chief refereeing officer, praised the Assistant Referee for “dusting himself down” and getting on with the game.
“Thankfully the young assistant recovered and continued,” Dallas told The Daily Record.
“When something like that happens to you then you either succumb to it and don’t put yourself through it again or you pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get back on with it and hope the authorities deal with it.
“I’m pretty confident that’s what will happen in this case as the young assistant referee was able to continue without any serious injury.
“The fact that his skin was actually broken shows it was serious and the problem is if that hits an eye then it could have been a lot more serious.
“We had a really serious incident in UEFA this season where a referee had to be taken to hospital after being hit by an object during a Europa League match in Austria and we just can’t have that.
“Thankfully in Scotland it’s isolated rather than common. The game in Scotland is bouncing back again and it’s great to see that and you don’t want this to detract from what’s happening on the pitch.
“There is a suggestion that the culprit was caught on camera and it was good to see the Rangers fans demanding that the person has to be identified because there’s no place for people like that in the game.”
Has he been identified yet? Has the SFA fined Rangers in the same manner that they dealt with Celtic? Are they running scared of these supporters who chanted “F*** the SFA” as the immediate response to the attack on the match official on Sunday?
Are the rules different for Rangers?
