IT’S ENOUGH to make you weep, but you have to laugh, haven’t you?
I can’t say I was overly-flabbergasted that the Key Match Incident Panel, five anonymous individuals pooling their grey cells, came up with a 3-2 majority verdict that insisted Reo Hatate should have been red-carded against Kilmarnock last weekend.
Three characters who are supposed to possess at least a scintilla of savvy about these things thought the Celtic playmaker should have been banished for a challenge on opponent Liam Donnelly at Rugby Park with only 10 minutes to go and the champions leading 2-0.
Match official Nick Walsh deemed it a yellow card and, after a swift VAR review, Don Robertson agreed with his colleague.
CONTACT…Reo Hatate slids in to challenge Kilmarnock midfielder Liam Donnelly.
However, the joint decision didn’t quite achieve universal approval. Cue Kris Boyd, reaching stratrospheric levels of apoplexy in the Sky studios, ranted: “It’s a red card. It’s a red card. It’s a red card. All day long.”
The gibbering former striker of a club that resides in Govan was in an alarmingly high state of agitato as he stressed: “He catches him below the knee. It’s impossible not to get sent off there.
“So, the referee gets it wrong on the pitch and Don Robertson gets it wrong in the VAR room. That’s a red card all day long.”
Heaven help us all. Three allegedly knowledgeable nameless characters gave their considered opinion after having another look at the moment in the cold light of day and contrived to agree with the blethering Boyd.
You have to wonder if these people are allowed to cross the road on their own.
What colour of specs were they wearing when they reviewed the coming-together? Did they take into consideration the underfoot conditions? The hosts own one of the worst surfaces in football and, remember, too, it was damp on a typical November day in this part of the universe and, without argument, that would have added to the skid factor.
Hatate and Donnelly had an accidental clatter going in for a 50/50 challenge. A former SFA referee, now mercifully retired and whose credentials remain suspect, claimed: “The Celtic player has misjudged the ball and then lunges in and makes contact with the studs on the knee.”
There is absolutely no evidence to support a lunge from the Japanese international playmaker after misjudging the ball.
The entire action is over in the blink of an eye and all enacted in one motion.
YELLOW PERIL…referee Nick Walsh books Reo Hatate after the coming-together.
Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes, the late Walter Smith’s one-time blue-eyed boy, will hardly become famous for any leanings towards the east end of Glasgow, but even he admitted: “When it goes to VAR, I’m sure the pictures didn’t look good, but in terms of force, I’m not sure it was a red card, to be honest.”
Spot on. A picture can tell a thousand stories, but a picture can also lie. Images can distort the truth. This is one such occasion.
Contact is made, but it’s clear Hatate is not displaying even an iota of aggression. It’s an accident. Start and end of.
Obviously, common sense was not utilised by three of the SFA review panel. But you know what they say about common sense, don’t you?
It’s not that common.
As so capably demonstrated by a trio of unidentified individuals whose considered opinion can be filed in the worthless category.
Keep the day job, folks.
ALEX GORDON
