Oh Oh Oh Oh - What A Referee

JINGS, crivvens, held ma Boab - another round of Saturday matches in the SPFL and we finally get something other than the on-going off-field events down Edmiston Drive way to get excited about.

 

I refer to the six-goal thriller at Perth, between St Johnstone and Hearts. Michty me, whit a stramash - Stuart Cosgrove probably got his next six weeks' worth of Off the Ball script bullet points from that single game.

 

Straight away, can I say, from my observations of the highlights on Sportscene on Sunday night - and what a surprise to see a game not involving Celtic leading the programme (not that I watch it every week) - referee Brian Colvin had a stinker. However, to blame everything which went wrong on the official is, I feel, a wee bit unfair.

 

Take the first contentious issue, the red card shown to Saints' Steven Anderson. OK, young Dale Carrick was some 35-yards out when he was upended by Anderson, but, I still feel had he got round the defender, Carrick would have had the legs on Fraser Wishart, so, for my money, the foul did deny Hearts a goal-scoring opportunity, so, I would back the referee here.

 

Alas poor Brian, he definitely got it wrong with the St Johnstone penalty late in the first half, although, one understands the call came from the assistant referee on that side. Yes, it was a foul, but, at least a yard outside the box.

 

The second Saints penalty, for hand ball, was one of those ones when, if you get it, you take it, but you just as easily might not have had it. I honestly didn't think Kevin McHattie had much chance of avoiding the ball as it was driven at him. In support of the referee, given what had gone before, he at least had the cajones to make the call.

 

As for the late red cards for Alan Mannus and Ryanb Stevenson. When a full-scale rammy such as that erupts, I wish football officials would take a leaf out of ice hockey officials' book. When the gloves come off in ice hockey and the punches start to fly - and these are always real punches, none of the swinging handbags we see in football, the three officials back off, watch what is going on, then, when things calm down, the ice hockey equivalent of red cards are shown. When two ice hockey players start punching each other, the linesmen are supposed to break-up the fights; they generally wait until the two combatants hit the ice, then go in - far safer.

At Perth, Mr Colvin was right in the middle of the melee, so couldn't really see what was going on. Mannus was heavily involved from the outset, Stevo was a late arrival, however, if like the pair of them, it comes down to sticking-out their heads like butting tups, well red cards are sure to follow.

Well done the referee - hee-haw donkey noises to the two stupid players.

I was at the Ayr v Jersey rugby match on Saturday and there was an outbreak of handbags late in the second half. The guy at the centre of the whole shebang was Ayr replacement scrum-half Murray McConnell, who gave as good as he got against a couple of Jersey men who were at least nine inches and four stones heavier than him. But, to be fair to the Jerseymen, they maybe didn't know you don't tangle with a five foot six, thrawn, ginger-haired Weegie with a grievance - not if you want to emerge with your good looks intact.

The match referee, who had an even poorer game than Mr Colvin at Perth, at least stayed well out of things, before summoning his two assistants to a midfield conference, after which they restarted play with a scrum to Ayr, a good 20 metres back from where it should have been. Do I hear gentlemen and hooligans being cited?

Still on the subject of Sunday night Sportscene - Kris B oyd as a talking head, who'd have thunked it?