Emotions certainly ran high last night as Celtic edged out Ross County in the final throws in Dingwall. Elation and a heart beating out the chest, followed by two hours staring at the ceiling trying to get to sleep, replaced sheer anger just prior to Tony Ralston’s incredible 97th minute winner.
This morning there remained the buzz that only a last gasp winner can give you and it’s one that will last all the way until kick off on Sunday. Yet the frustrations of the game soon came back to the forefront of the mind.
There were no issues for me with Celtic’s performance. I’d said pre-game I expected Celtic to require two goals to win and they’d need no more than that to do it. Late as it was the job was done, and with a squad down to bare bones for attacking options the creation of chances was once again no issue, meanwhile the conversion of them is entirely in line with the personnel missing. As such a 2-1 win at Ross County in midwinter is more than acceptable.
Abada’s opener was a training ground goal and they are often the most pleasing to watch. The conceded equaliser, although as avoidable as any goal ever is, was simply a case of players switching off momentarily and paying a price. Them’s the breaks, and we can all handle those. And then the winning goal epitomised that Ange Postecoglou vision, the ‘we don’t stop’ approach to football. Not only do we not stop, we keep on playing the same way, believing in the process, the philosophy and not resorting to hopeful punts into the area.
The lateness and drama of the winning goal was an incredible moment, yet when you look back the most pleasing aspect was even in the 97th minute we did not deviate from how the manager wants us to play. Under such duress that was a clear signal this is a team who believe in what they are being trained to do and are confident enough in the message that they will not move from instruction.
All of that was quite a ride and the result was a fair reflection on the game. However, had it ended level I’d have had few complaints with the effort exhibited under trying times by a decimated squad.
What I did have complaint about was the refereeing once again, the disregard for the safety of our players and the subsequent back of the bus mentality exhibited by Alan Muir to Celtic last night. And this behaviour is entirely emboldened by our mute custodians.
We outlined a series of incidents in an article after David Turnbull was the victim of a horrendous tackle at Tannadice, one retrospective punishment eventually handed a three-match ban too but one the referee deemed a yellow card on the day.
We won’t go through all those incidents again, but to summarise this was not an article calling out dubious offside decisions, ignored penalties or anything going on at Ibrox, it was one that highlighted the risk to the safety of our players by referees and the governing body, as well as our own club’s silence on the matter.
Last night and Alan Muir added another referee to the three we had previously highlighted, and this time there was an added ‘know your place’ response from Muir that left a horrid tase in the mouth.
Whether Carl Starfelt was elbowed and at the same time kicked deliberately last night, only Jordan White knows. The referee appeared to indicate he hadn’t seen the incident and that can happen, what he should have been aware of, or made aware of, was Carl Starfelt hit the deck and blood was pouring from his face.
Protocols indicate for head knocks the game is immediately stopped. It wasn’t, and Starfelt momentarily was forced to attempt to play on.
It’s fair to say when the game eventually halted Starfelt was far from pleased and appeared incredibly frustrated at not being afforded what the protocols entitle him too – an immediate assessment of his head injury.
It appears Starfelt made clear his feelings and insult was added to injury as the defender was cautioned. Muir in my view was clearly displeased at such a vocal and public light being shone on his inadequacies, the yellow card was issued in the hope Starfelt would calm down and move on like a good wee boy. He didn’t and Joe Hart appeared to act as peacemaker to avoid a yellow becoming a red.
Joe hart telling his own player to shut the fuck up cause he knows that wank of a ref will send him off for it pic.twitter.com/ulcGL9S3dB
— MT x 🐐 (@Martinhthomson7) December 16, 2021
Muir however wasn’t done there, he instead waited for his moment, and for as innocuous a challenge as you are likely to see bided his time and produced the second yellow for Starfelt following a ‘foul’ on County’s Regan Charles-Cook. Job done, the mouthy Celtic upstart who dared to question the referee gets his comeuppance and the referee does it in a way that avoids the scrutiny of him sending Starfelt off for an incident that would never have happened in the first place had Muir followed the correct protocols in the first place.
For me the referee was putting Starfelt in his place, reminding him who is boss and ensuring he knew his place was at the back of the bus for what amounted to perceived insubordination and daring to embarrass him in public. Of course, the referee wasn’t done there, there was also a blatant penalty ignored and a corner awarded – which means he admits he saw the ball strike the player but chose to ignore the player had his arms up in an unnatural position or that the ball hit his arm. Know your place Celtic!
Alan Muir missed the penalty in the closing minutes of the game as well. pic.twitter.com/qwNtpyat0X
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) December 15, 2021
Last night’s incident was the most blatant for me of all the refereeing incidents in recent weeks. There can be no risks taken with head knocks, yet this referee did not stop the game to ensure Starfelt was protected, and he did the same in the first half when Turnbull went down holding his head and was allowed to carry on without an assessment being carried out.
Added to the many incidents where career threatening challenges have been made on Celtic players and not punished this season a dangerous pattern is emerging. Yet Celtic as a club remain mute on this matter.
This is not about missed opportunities, questionable offsides or disallowed goals, this is not about Celtic and theRangers and the title race, although such incidents should be scrutinised. This is about the safety of Celtic’s players consistently being overlooked by officials, and even if the club choose to ignore the offsides and disallowed goals as the types of incidents that apparently even themselves out over a season, the safety if our players is not a subject that should be treated with the same level of disregard.
There is now a duty on the custodians of our club to call these incidents out and publicly so, because not only are they continuing unabated, on the evidence of last night, when our players, no doubt frustrated at weeks of a lack of protection for themselves and their teammates, hit back and question the referees they are put in their place and sent to the back of the bus.
There is no longer time for back-channel conversations, quiet words in the right ears. If this is even happening at all it is not being listened too never mind being acted upon and it is now getting to the point a Celtic player, or more than one, could end up seriously hurt as a result.
Perhaps the time to raise such issues and in the public domain is after games like last night where it is as clear an error in officiating as you can get, but also when we’ve won, so as to avoid the sour grapes defence being trotted out. Yet when it is does probably matters little, it simply matters that it is.
The SFA are doing nothing, the same referees are making the same errors week in week out and that indicates the supervision of those referees never mind the men in the middle themselves is not up to standard. Celtic now have a duty to intervene, question the competency of the whole organisation and publicly demand reform, and they need to do it before someone gets seriously hurt.
Niall J
WATCH THIS…
AND THIS…
The boss 😎 pic.twitter.com/W5tzF6isK4
— Vicks Mc (@vicksmclean) December 16, 2021
Compare the incident yesterday with red card Ross incident.