Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! What A Referee!!!

I HAVE seen many amazingly-bad decisions made by referees, but, few as bad as the one Alan Muir made during tonight's Hibs v Falkirk play-off semi-final at Easter Road.

When he allowed Falkirk defender David McCracken to: play the ball with his left hand (albeit inadvertently) when on the ground – no penalty for me; then put his right hand on the ball, and appear to flick it forward to better make his clearance – a clear penalty: well, it seemed to me, at that moment, he proved all these accusations of refereeing incompetence in Scotland were true. It was truly a terrible non-decision. I believe even Willie Collum would have seen that as a penalty.

Referee Alan Muir

Mind you, Mr Muir, unfortunately, does have something of a track record in getting things wrong when it comes to penalties during Falkirk games - maybe he was evening things up for denying the Bairns at least one "stonewaller" n the past.

Well, let's look on the bright side, the tie is beautifully poised, all-square with Friday night's second leg at the Falkirk Stadium to come. I still feel, however, it is written in the stars that Falkirk will win that one and it will come down to another crucial Falkirk v Kilmarnock game, to settle the 12^th team in next season's SPFL Premiership.

Tonight's game was rather good, with some terrific football, plus a few moments which showed just how average football in Scotland is just now.

HERE'S my idea of how next season's Premiership campaign can be livened-up. It should be written into the competition rules, that Efe Ambrose MUST be in the Celtic team. No harm to Efe, but, he is definitely what we call: “accident prone”, and his arrival in Sunday's Parkhead game between the Hoops and Aberdeen was definitely enlivened and enhanced by his appearance.

If Celtic was forced to field him in every game, it just might give the rest a chance.

I AM a fan of the Guardian's occasional sporting series - “The Joy of Six”, which finds a basic theme running through six different sporting moments. Last week, the subject (one which they run on a more-or-less annual basis) was six good football chants.

In the btl (below the line) comments section, however the readers take the basic thread off on all sorts of different directions. In this, the Scottish content formed up around one incident – that emotional rendition of the Proclaimers' “Sunshine on Leith” by the massed ranks of Hibernia after their team had whacked Killie in the League Cup Final, a few years back.

I have to admit, as a pain-racked Ayrshireman, whose team had just been well and truly stuffed, evn I found it lump in the throat time, truly: “My heart was broken, you saw it you claimed it, you touched it, you saved it”.

That afternoon was probably the pinnacle of John Collins' managerial career. Shortly afterwards, he lost the Hibs dressing room – it has been downhill ever since. This week, Collins announced he was quitting as Celtic assistant manager, following Ronnie Deila out of the Parkhead door.

John Collins - leaving

The polished, articulate Collins will, no doubt, find a nice soft billet in that home for inoffensive has-beens: the BBC Scotland pundits panel, where he will be just another talking head. Michael Stewart brings an edge to punditry, Pat Nevin does analysis. Really, Collins has nothing better to look forward to than years of stating the obvious and trying not to offend his former mates, who are still in the managerial firing line.

As somebody once said to another Hibs great: “Where did it all go wrong”?

THE ABOVE picture is of Tadek Kopszywa, the Secretary of East Stirlingshire FC. Tadek is one of the mainly hidden and unsung heroes of Scottish football, keeping one of the perennial minnows going in the face of public indifference.

Last week, in a rare media appearance, Tadek admitted something very few of his contemporaries in the lower reaches of Scottish senior football ever will – that we have too-many senior clubs, playing in too-many senior divisions. We should salute such honesty.

This blog has never questioned the right of East Stirlingshire to exist, the more clubs the merrier – it is simply this, to me obvious fact: to have Falkirk, Stenhousemuir, East Stirlingshire, Alloa Athletic and Stirling Albion all operating within one small area, all seeking to offer “senior” football, to virtually the same catchment area, is a nonsense.

It is the same elsewhere in Scotland, with Dunfermline Athletic, Cowdenbeath, Raith Rovers and East Fife all vying for the Fife football following – it might even be said, in 21^st century Scotland, to have two clubs operating side-by-side at opposite ends of Tannadice Street in Dundee doesn't make sense.

I will say this again. Scotland might be able to support 16 – 20 full-time senior clubs, playing in a structured season. The remainder of our current 42 clubs should revert to junior status, playing in regional leagues, but, with a definite remit to bring through young Scottish talent.

It is too easy to be classed as “a footballer” in Scotland, where the majority of our “senior footballers” who turn-out, for “senior” clubs on a Saturday are actually: butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers, augmenting their Monday to Friday wages with the wee bit extra they are paid to kick a ball around on a Saturday.

Professional football should be just that – a game played by people with a certain level of expertise, who practice and train to perform at a given level. It should not be something someone practices two nights per week, after the day job, as a means of filling-in his Saturday afternoon.

Rant over.