Dallas admits to 'disappointing decisions that he's uncomfortable with'

Hugh Dallas has admitted that it has been a disappointing season with disappointing decisions that he has been uncomfortable with.

Predictably the man that has developed and groomed the current batch of referee's hasn't highlighted any specific incidents and has, true to form, reached out for the honest mistakes line. As if there could ever be any other possibility.

Once again over the weekend we witnessed amazing inconsistencies, Celtic players being booked for kicking the ball away and an Aberdeen player able to leave the field of play, celebrate with supporters and take his shirt off without referee Iain Brines reaching for a card.

No Celtic supporter has any real complaint about Stevie MacLean's actions, if he had ran towards the Celtic support, Adebayor-style, it would have been a different story.

He scored his goal, earned his team a point and deserves the right to celebrate. Just like Georgios Samaras at St Johnstone or Morten Rasmussen against Hamilton. 
Or Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink at Inverness three years ago which left Brines with no option but to yellow card and send the Dutchman off.

That day Brines applied the letter of the law, presumably on Saturday he used the 18th law of the game Common Sense which covers up for refs disobeying the laws of the game.

There has been much more than goal celebrations for Celtic supporters to get concerned with this season, aside from the obvious deficiencies evident in the team.

Clear cut penalty decisions were denied early in the season against Dundee United, Hearts and Rangers which finally saw Dallas issue a second hand apology on behalf of Craig Thompson who admitted to one wrong penalty call in the October 4 Rangers-Celtic game.

Interestingly in today's admission Dallas claims: "the first question we always ask is: ‘Why?’ In order to understand the reason behind it we need to hear the reason."

Strangely enough no explanation was ever offered for Thompson's failure to see David Weir's foul on Shaun Maloney, human error we can assume.

Dallas met with SPL managers at Hampden last Friday and finally admitted that it hasn't been a season to be proud of from the countries referees but again opted out of giving specific instances or reasons for the error-strewn season.

He explained: "If I am being honest, I would say this has been a disappointing season with some disappointing decisions, which I wish we didn’t have to analyse and talk about.

“We examine these in detail at the Referee Development Department and the first question we always ask is: ‘Why?’ In order to understand the reason behind it we need to hear the reason.

“Obviously there have been incidents this season I have been uncomfortable with. I am not going to sit here and pretend mistakes have not been made but it is how the referees learn from these that is important."

Perhaps publically admitting to mistakes being made by referees and demoting them from SPL matches would be a good start in ensuring stronger decisions are made and referees who repeatedly fail to apply the laws of the game are removed from the higher profile matches.

That may initially effect referees, but equally, younger promising referees with a flair from the game, not necessarily coming through from the professions, may be encouraged if they see a clear route to the top based on ability and decision making rather than being a favourite of the games rulers.

Dallas's comments are clearly aimed at supporters starting to air their concerns and gathering evidence of repeated mistakes from referees.

Whether he has addressed his officials and issued clear guidelines on fairly trivial matters like post-goal celebrations remains to be seen.

With a Rangers-Celtic game looming less than two weeks away the SFA could do without their officials being ridiculed with the eyes of the world looking in via Sky Sports.

Thompson and Steve Conroy have both made major mistakes in these fixtures already this season, a repeat of that next Sunday will confirm today's statement from Dallas as having all the conviction of a political manifesto.

As the Champions League resumes this week we will see increasing numbers of younger, fitter, dedicated officials not afraid of making big decisions. 

None of them will be Scottish.

Article from SFA website

McGinn the fan becomes Niall the scorer

Niall McGinn's joy at his first Celtic goal was obvious to all on Saturday as the ball hit the back of the Kilmarnock net.

The 22-year-old from County Tyrone has forced his way into Tony Mowbray's squad this season and made a favourable impression on the support with his pace and direct approach to taking on defenders.

In any circumstances scoring your first goal for a club is a special feeling but for the dwindling band of supporters to have graduated into the first team it must be extra special.

Aiden McGeady was fortunate enough to score on his Celtic debut against Hearts in 2004 but there weren't many friendly faces celebrating when his shot hit the net.

BAMBOOZLED
A few months after McGeady's debut goal Alan Thompson, what a surprise, sent in a stinging shot that bamboozled Stefan Klos as it bent and swerved it's way over the German into the goal.

Behind Klos celebrating was the teenage McGinn, jumping for joy as his first visit to Celtic Park ended in victory to give him something to celebrate all the way home and no doubt through the next week or two.

After scoring his first Celtic goal against Kilmarnock at the weekend McGinn was happy to recall the emotions that he felt as a fan celebrating one of Thompson's many goals against Rangers.

McGinn recalled: "I'll never forget the first time I watched a match at Celtic Park, I was sitting behind the goal when Alan Thompson scored a late winner against Rangers.

CELEBRATIONS
"I was going mad after that goal so it was special to score my first Celtic goal at the same end then share the celebrations with the supporters.

"I'd thought about my celebrations, I had a few planned but just ran over to the crowd and kissed the badge.

"I grew up supporting Celtic. When I came back to the halfway line I put my hand up to my mother and father who were in the Players' Lounge watching me.

UNBELIEVABLE
"When I got back to the changing room after the match there was a lot of messages and missed calls on my phone, the support that I'm getting from back home is unbelievable. There is a big following from my area for Celtic and everyone seems interested in how I'm getting on.

"A lot of people give up time to travel over from Ireland to watch Celtic. It was my dream as a boy to play here and I loved coming over for games.

"I know what it's like to be a supporter, to be playing for Celtic is very special and I like to give something back to the people that are travelling over from Ireland."

Evening Herald interview with Niall McGinn