The Record reveals the biggest losers in refereeing mistakes. Guess who?

THE DAILY RECORD has an article today that outline “the 9 of the worst referee decisions in Scottish football this season” – so you’ll be curious to find out the incidents that they have selected.

Let’s think back ourselves to some of the ones that might make the list.

What about Morelos getting send off at Aberdeen on the opening day for kicking Scott McKenna. This red card was reviewed by the SFA and overruled so it must have been a bad decision, right?

Talking of kicking, what about Allan McGregor’s kick at Kris Ayer in September when the Norwegian defender was on the ground? The SFA again looked at this one, and confirmed that Rangers players kicking opponents is perfectly okay – at least they are showing a bit of consistency in this policy.

That brings us to 29 December at Ibrox when Alfredo Morelos, who has never scored against Celtic, kicked out on four separate occasions at three Celtic players, Scott Brown, Ryan Christie (twice) and Anthony Ralston.

So that Morelos at Pittodrie (one), McGregor on Ayer (two), the four Morelos assaults on 29 December (six) so to get us up to the nine required, they’ll no doubt opt for the three non penalty penalties that Andrew Dallas awarded at the weekend to Rangers against St Mirren (nine).

That’s their list right? WRONG!

1. Betfred Cup Final penalty

They start off Dallas but it was him awarding CELTIC a penalty in the Betfred Cup Final. You may recall that the foul occurred just outside the box and Scotty Sinclair missed the kick. That’s the biggest scandal in Scottish football – Celtic getting a penalty that should have been a free kick.

Team benefiting so far – Celtic.

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen.

2. Peter Haring ‘foul’ against St Johnstone

Next is Peter Haring ‘foul’ against St Johnstone which got Hearts a penalty. A terrible decision right enough, again from Andrew Dallas (see what they’re doing Dallas gives penalties to Celtic and Hearts).

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts.

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen, St Johnstone.

3. Daniel Candeias red card

Candeias got a second yellow from Willie Collum late in a game against St Mirren that the Rangers were winning. All hell broke loose and Collum has never been allowed near one of their games again.

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts, St Mirren

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen, St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers.

4. Jordan Jones dive vs Dundee

This was the incident that the admirable Steve Clarke was referring to yesterday. Jones did dive and Steven McLean bought it by awarding Kilmarnock a penalty. Neil McCann, then the Dundee manager, was raging. Clarke yesterday asked the SFA’s Compliance Officer to be consistent and suggested that Defoe should be cited for his dive at the weekend that resulted in Andrew Dallas awarding a penalty to Rangers.

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts, St Mirren, Kilmarnock

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen, St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers, Dundee.

5. Scott McKenna tackle on Odsonne Edouard

Bobby Madden gets in on the act for thinking that McKenna’s high tackle on French Eddie was acceptable. The Aberdeen stopper was cited and given a two match ban. It was certainly reckless but not malicious.

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts, St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen, St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers, Dundee, Celtic

6. Gary Dicker red card vs Hearts

Back to Willie Collum who sent of Killie’s Gary Dicker for a straight legged tackle – nowhere near as bad as the one that Edouard received on Sunday. The SFA looked at this and agreed with Collum, but it makes their list anyway. Steve Clarke wasn’t happy at all.

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts (x2), St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen, St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers, Dundee, Celtic, Kilmarnock

7. Sam Cosgrove red card vs Rangers

Steven McLean send the Aberdeen striker off for winning the ball against Connor Goldston who kicked the Aberdeen player’s foot. Decision? Second yellow than a red card to the Dons player.

Derek McInnes said: “I didn’t think it was a foul by him, I thought he won the ball. How the referee and the linesman deem that a yellow card offence, I find astonishing.”

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts (x2), St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, the Rangers

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen (x2), St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers, Dundee, Celtic, Kilmarnock

8. Ryan Porteous tackle on Lassana Coulibaly

The young Hibs defender’s bad tackle on the Rangers man resulted in Craig Thomson producing a yellow card rather than red. Huge outrage in the media followed.

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts (x2), St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, the Rangers, Hibs

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen (x2), St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers (x2), Dundee, Celtic, Kilmarnock

Their ninth example was Kris Doolan ghost goal from a Partick Thistle v Falkirk game, so we’ll set that to one side.

CONCLUSIONS

EIGHT decisions from the Premiership have been selected by the Record as the worst examples of refereeing so far this season and the impact is as follows:

Team benefiting so far – Celtic, Hearts (x2), St Mirren, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, the Rangers, Hibs

Team losing out so far – Aberdeen (x2), St Johnstone, (poor) Rangers (x2), Dundee, Celtic, Kilmarnock

Putting this into a table we have the following:

Hearts +2
St Mirren +1
Celtic level
Kilmarnock level
Aberdeen -1
the Rangers -1
Dundee -1

So Hearts and St Mirren are ahead of the game in benefiting from refereeing mistakes, Celtic and Killie have had swings and roundabouts whereas the real victims are Aberdeen, Dundee and……….the Rangers!

You couldn’t make it up!

*Police Scotland’s update on the alleged death threats issued to John Beaton at the beginning of the year has yet to be released.

Also on The Celtic Star today…