BEATON’S PERFORMANCE WAS FAR FROM BALANCED. CELTIC WERE MARGINALISED FROM THE FIRST, TO THE LAST KICK OF THE BALL

This morning, Keith Jackson is bleating on in the Daily Record that John Beaton emerged with his “professional reputation in one piece”.

Well, the first point I’d like to make is that Scottish referees are not professionals.

They are amateurs.

They all have day jobs, outside of refereeing professional footballers for a nice weekend lump sum when they’re selected to do so.

Yes, in the Scottish game, amateurs tell the professionals what to do.

And as we’re all aware, said amateurs are a protected species.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, is allowed to criticise their decision making.

Just ask Brendan Rodgers what happens if you do.

So, no Keith Jackson, John Beaton did not emerge with his “professional reputation in one piece”.

I’m not sure what game Jackson was watching, but it certainly wasn’t the same game I was watching.

HE BELIEVES BEATON, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF NICK WALSH, GOT ALL OF HIS DECISIONS SPOT ON.

I beg to differ.

The statistics of this contest tell a completely different story.

Have a look at the final stats of the game below:

What stands out most is the fouls committed by Celtic.

Which is over double the amount committed by the Ibrox side.

In his article last night on Celtic365, Joe McHugh actually broke this down.

Have a read of it, and you will see where Joe tells us that Celtic were committing a foul every one minute and twenty seconds on average throughout the game.

I predicted last week in an article that Beaton would do everything in his power to disrupt Celtic’s play, and so it transpired.

This is what I said:

He will disrupt play as much as possible.

Penalising Celtic at every opportunity, while letting everything go for the other side.

YOU SEE, THE GAME FROM A REFEREEING PERSPECTIVE IN SCOTLAND IS SO EASILY PREDICTABLE, THE PATTERN OF ASSISTANCE IS THERE FOR ALL TO SEE.

I said that Joe Hart should spend the week practicing saving penalties against the best penalty takers in the squad.

Because John Beaton was sure to award the Ibrox side a penalty.

It looked like Joe did exactly that, as he came within a whisker of saving Tavernier’s penalty when it was inevitably awarded.

However, I did not, in a million years, expect Beaton to award us a penalty.

But what I did say was this:

Nick Walsh, as VAR, might be our only hope in this clash, since he seems to be the only really consistent official in Scotland at the moment.

Clearly, he spotted what John Beaton didn’t when it came to Conor Goldson’s handball.

At the time, I said there was a major element of Karma in that decision.

You could see that Beaton was almost crying when he knew there was no way out of awarding it.

Thus, it was inevitable that he would get his opportunity later in the contest to “level things up”, as it were.

I was surprised that Nick Walsh called him to the monitor for that one.

SILVA WAS EVEN WEARING OUT THE IBROX SUPPORTERS AT THAT POINT WITH HIS ON FIELD ANTICS.

So much so, that even they felt he deserved a yellow card for simulation.

But Beaton must have felt all of his Christmases came at once when he was called to review the penalty incident.

From the footage, it’s clear that Johnston first cleared the ball, and then Silva collapsed in a heap over his knee.

This was a key moment in the game.

One where the term “unconscious bias” was truly epitomised.

Let’s change the scenario slightly for this.

You’re a neutral referee, with no affiliation whatsoever to either side.

Therefore, nothing going on around you should really impact on your decision making.

You go to the monitor, and you are shown the full incident.

Inclusive of Johnston’s clearance prior to Silva colliding with his knee.

What do you think the outcome would be?

Well, I believe a neutral referee would’ve upheld his original call.

He would’ve re-shown the yellow for simulation, and Joe Hart would have a free kick.

But John Beaton is not neutral.

Therefore, despite him knowing it really shouldn’t have been a penalty, unconscious bias kicked in.

HE RULED WITH HIS HEART, THE HEART THAT LOVES HIS FAVOURITE TEAM.

He took the opportunity to level things up.

Then, only minutes later, he allowed the Ibrox side to start an attack and head up the pitch after Tom Lawrence’s blatant foul against Tomoki Iwata.

Which resulted in a goal.

Once again, Walsh rightfully interjected, and the goal was chalked off.

Once again Beaton was visibly upset at having to disallow the goal, despite the fact he knew he had let the Ibrox side away with one shortly beforehand.

This was the pattern of assistance throughout the game.

WALSH AS VAR COULD NOT INTERJECT WHEN IT CAME TO THESE KINDS OF CALLS.

Because it didn’t really have a huge impact on things overall, other than to allow the home side to foul with impunity, which he couldn’t keep calling back.

However, what Walsh was not willing to accept, was one of these unpunished fouls leading to a goal being scored.

So he made Beaton review his decision when it came to Lawrence’s foul on Iwata.

Once again, much to his complete dismay, Beaton knew he had no choice but to award the foul to Celtic.

Walsh, from my point of view, did his job well as VAR.

Obviously, I would question his decision to send Beaton to the monitor after the Silva incident, and also why the full sequence of play was not shown to Beaton.

Was that an “honest mistake”, or was it deliberate?

Looking at Walsh’s calls overall, I’d be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on that one.

BUT IT WAS CLEAR BEATON WAS NOT GOING TO LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH WHEN THE SILVA OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED ITSELF.

Overall, the game played out pretty much as I predicted it would.

Celtic were marginalised from the first to last kick of the game when it came to Beaton’s decision making.

We were dominant in the first half, and unlucky not to head in at half time with a 3 goal lead.

The Ibrox side have Jack Butland to thank for that.

His outstanding save from Matt O’Riley’s goal bound header being the real difference.

In reality, the game turned on that penalty decision in the second half.

It gave the Ibrox side a new lease of life as their own fans were booing them up and down the park.

One they never should have had.

Once they had their tails up, it became the contest we had kept at bay for the majority of the first half.

We played poorly, and let them back into the game.

SIMA’S INTRODUCTION MADE THE DIFFERENCE FOR THEM.

And while we brought Callum McGregor on to help us see out the game, he was unwittingly the architect of our downfall when it came to their equaliser.

Firstly with his loose pass, and then his wicked deflection for the Sima goal.

We showed huge character to go straight down the pitch again and regain the lead through Adam Idah.

But sadly, with a ridiculous 8 minutes of injury time added on, it wasn’t meant to be.

Yang criminally stood off Matondo, giving him all the space in the world to place his shot in almost identical fashion to the way he had a week previously against Hibs.

We were lucky to see out the game at 3-3 after Dessers late shot flashed inches wide of Hart’s left post.

Yet still, a decent draw for us felt like a loss.

While they acted like they had just won the league with a lap of honour.

IN REALITY, THAT WAS THE BEST THEY COULD OFFER AT HOME TO US.

They could not beat us.

They have yet to beat us this season.

Now they have to come to Paradise, and they have to win on our home patch if they want to win this title.

Yesterday, they showed they’re still not good enough to beat us.

I doubt they’ll manage it when they come to Celtic Park.

There are a few twists and turns to go in this title race yet.

But our destiny is now completely in our own hands.

We gave ourselves that chance by leaving Ibrox unbeaten yesterday.

They can have their “moral” victory.

I think we might just have the real victory in the end.

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