A forward's challenge or an own goal?

He's generally regarded as a sly old fox and master of the media but has Walter Smith scored an own goal by throwing fresh fuel onto the Kyle Lafferty controversy?

There are always talking, or typing, points thrown up after Celtic-Rangers matches but generally they linger on and die away after a few days as life moves on to the following weekends fixtures.

Most people had had their say and there wasn't a sane voice anywhere willing to defend Lafferty's violent attack on Andreas Hinkel.

A few people had suggested that Marco Fortune had fouled Allan McGregor at the disallowed Celtic goal but no one had been prepared to defend or justify Lafferty's actions until today.

Will Smith's comments force the SFA to recall their Review Panel out of hibernation or are they still scratching around to find guidelines for cases that require a second or third opinion?

After deciding to review incidents that happened to involve Celtic players in successive matches last May it's all gone kind of quiet on the Review front.

"I've seen the incident once since the game and Kyle's tackle was a forward's challenge, claimed the Rangers manager.

"Everyone keeps saying the referee should have acted but the referee did act. He deemed it a yellow card offence and that was it.

Less than a week ago a referee acted and gave Kenny Miller a red card, that was hardly 'it' as Rangers attempted to find some vague grounds to appeal against the referees decision.

For reasons best known to himself Smith has decided to further highlight the Lafferty incident and keep the controversy going for another day or two.

Looking at it rationally the Rangers manager should surely have kept quiet on the issue, let it run it's course and move on rather than attempt to excuse it under the 'forward's challenge' claim.

There are plenty of players at Celtic and Rangers who have suffered serious injuries when opponents have gone beyond what is generally acceptable in the cut and thrust of the game. Ian Durrant and John Kennedy were both spectators on Sunday.

Lafferty's 'forward's challenge' was of a similar nature to the incidents that put the career's of Durrant and Kennedy on hold; robbing Kennedy of his career and Durrant of two years football before returning at a lesser level.

I suspect most footballers watching the Lafferty-Hinkel incident either winced or were incensed, there is no place for that sort of challenge in the game.

The 'forward's challenge' summed up the mentality of Lafferty, he's in a bad place just now. Rangers supporters want to love him but can't, he contributes little to their team, he's playing out of position and worst of all he's picking up the sort of wages that would probably have Kris Boyd signing up onto a new ten year contract.

Throw in the atmosphere of a Celtic-Rangers game you have all the ingredients that led to the foul on Hinkel.

By reviving the incident and describing it as a 'forwards challenge' Smith is excusing Lafferty and setting a dangerous precedent.

Without doubt there will be some nasty borderline challenges put in on Rangers players before the season ends, being on the receiving end I doubt that Smith will shrug his shoulders and accept a yellow card as punishment then watch the same forward being involved in a goal scoring incident.

Saying nothing would have been the sensible option, adopting the Arsene Wenger method.

After the Charlie Mulgrew incident last season referees will naturally be suspicious of Lafferty

BBC video clip of incident

Referee Conroy's mistakes deny Celtic derby victory

For the second time this season Celtic have found themselves on the wrong end of major refereeing mistakes against Rangers.

Once again, just like in the October defeat at Ibrox, there were plenty of deficiencies in the Celtic performance.

This time around the forwards were mainly to blame as they managed to score just once from the bulk of possession. Allan McGregor was forced to make only one outstanding save as Celtic's pressure and possession failed to be converted into clear cut chances or goals.

At Ibrox in October Celtic's main problems were in defence where goals were given away cheaply, Rangers equaliser today was another example of poor defending.

Celtic's onfield problems are the responsibility of Tony Mowbray and ultimately the Celtic board.

The problems and shortcomings are obvious, resolving them is Mowbray's job and he'll be held responsible if Celtic fail to win the title this season.

Equally the Celtic board are responsible for selecting managers and providing them with the funds and support to ensure that the club is successful.

Who is referee Steve Conroy responsible to?

Who was responsible for selecting Conroy for the match?

What action will be taken to improve his decision making or are we simply to sit back comforted in the knowledge that these mistakes balance themselves out over the season?


The Celtic-Rangers game is the top fixture in Scottish football and only the best referees are given the task of taking charge of the prestige match.

Today Conroy demonstrated that he doesn't have the decision making skills to handle top matches, hopefully it'll be a long long time before he is again given such a high profile match.

There were two first half incidents that left Conroy open to criticism, the same sort of criticism that was directed at Craig Thomson after the October fixture which resulted in a second hand and second rate apology issued from Hugh Dallas.

Marco Fortune's challenge on Allan McGregor was perfectly legitimate, he had his eye on the ball and headed into the net despite McGregor's challenge.

It was an unusual goal, usually it does require a foul to beat a goalkeeper in that sort of position but there was nothing wrong with Fortune's 'goal'.

For reasons known only to himself Conroy decided to disallow the goal without any appeal coming from the Rangers defenders. They knew their keeper had been beaten fair and square.

Comparing that decision to the non-penalties at Ibrox in October puts Conroy in a very poor light.

Thomson failed to see the clear foul on Shaun Maloney, that can happen although when it happens two or three times in the one match it becomes very concerning.

Missing an incident is more understandable than 'seeing' something that no-one else in the stadium witnessed.

What was it that Fortune did?

Clearly setting the standard with that mistake Conroy's decision making was again badly at fault when Kyle Lafferty went sliding through into the leg on Andreas Hinkel.

There was no prospect of playing the ball with the 'challenge' clearly violent conduct- an ordering off offence.

Rather than be decisive Conroy opted out by booking Lafferty, thankfully Hinkel anticipated the challenge and no serious injury was suffered.

Some folk may recall Lafferty's kung-fu challenge on Zheng Zhi at Ibrox which escaped even a yellow card.

Celtic and Tony Mowbray have got plenty of work to do to build up a team capable of winning the SPL title and recapturing recent Champions League achievements.

Those areas will be discussed and debated by supporters eager to see signs of improvement and activity in the transfer market this month.

Mowbray and the Celtic board are judged week by week on their performances.

Getting things right on the park will be a tough task for the Celtic manager, competing on a level playing field with competent officials capable of making correct decisions isn't asking for too much.

There are plenty of borderline decisions in football that can be looked at from two sides and the decision of the referee is accepted, reluctantly at times.

Clear cut decisions like today don't require exceptional judgement, they were there for all to see and if referee Conroy can't get it right he should be kept well clear of the bigger fixtures that shape championships and can decide a managers future.

Refereeing performances like we've witnessed in the derby matches this season are shown live throughout the UK and beyond, it's little surprise that there will again be no Scottish officials at the World Cup or involved in the important Champions League matches.