Scottish Football Thread

When did Rangers get a decision and others were told to put up and shut up ? Are you just imagining scenarios ?

https://www.alamy.com/motherwell-uk-13-may-2026-motherwells-sam-nicholson-was-given-a-controversial-handball-for-this-challenge-in-the-box-in-the-scottish-premiership-match-between-motherwell-and-celtic-at-fir-park-credit-ryan-fleming-alamy-live-news-image732208395.html

Reminds me of the Rovers v Celje game in Tallaght when Rovers got a penalty for an identical issue, its at the start of this video.

All Goals v Celje l UEFA Europa League l 15 August 2024 - YouTube

Chris Boyd made some tit of himself last night. Which is nothing new, I know.

A lot of the Scottish pundits and, surprisely, some of the non-Scottish pundits made a tit of themselves last night. ITV national news at 18:30 had a segment about the game and how plucky Hearts could win the title after 65 years later. A lot of them were caught up in the fairytale story.

Also, the force that the ball goes away at doesn't like it would if it was just a handball.

Last nights review of the game on Sky

His arm is in a natural position for elbowing Trusty - which he did

'Arm above shoulder height is an unnatural position and has always been a penalty'

Apart from when it wasn't, of course. For example Sterling against Hearts who had his arm above the shoulder, the ball hits the top of his arm below the jersey line and Collum came out saying it wasn't a penalty because he was going for the ball.

edit:

and why wouldn’t they? Any neutral (that cares) would want Hearts to win over those two other teams. Not everybody that isn’t a rangers fan has to like celtic and for them to win it.

I’d love another team other than Bayern to win the bundesliga.

My viewing of it was that he jumps using his arms put as leverage to get the higest jump as possible, as players have always done.

When he uses that final pivot down of the arms (like wings flapping) to get that last inch of height, as players have always done, while his right arm does pivot down, his left cannot because Trusty is beside him, and consequently the force of his pivot sends his left arm and hand across his forehead.

I'm not a fan of the simplistic 'his arm/hand was in an unnatural position' in this case as it was there because of the contact with Trusty (in fact, I'm not a fan of the whole concept of 'unnatural position' at all - in football, parts of the body naturally move all over the place during movement, and it's unnatural to consciously prevent this - there's nothing more unnatural than defenders trying to cut out a cross with their arms clasped behind their back).

If we look at factors that mitigate against a simple decision of 'unnatural position' - and this is done, because not every penalty is automatically given in such circumstances - then I wonder why it was not taken into consideration here.

Finally, what we really are looking at is poor referees, a very cheap VAR infrastructure (number of and quality of cameras and replays) that does not support a proper implementation of VAR, and a lack of a systematic application of VAR guidelines.

VAR was never meant to review the 'seen them given' moments. And sometimes VAR interventions are (rightly in my view) limited to incidents that really are quite blatant, and about which there is more or less immediate and universal agreement.

Whereas in other times, a referee is invited to review a decision that, while not the only possible decision, does not constitute an error.

And if Celtic had only drawn last night it would be the exact same!

I've a feeling Saturday is going to be another crazy day. Hearts have been excellent all season and I'm sure most neutral fans will be hoping they can get it across the line.

As a Celtic fan, that MON has dragged us into the past game with the title in our control is incredible.

Also interesting to see if Rangers can complete a historic 5 in a row