There has been many takes and different opinions over the performance of Nick Walsh at Parkhead on Saturday afternoon.
Many fans, and to be fair, pundits reckon he had nightmare by not sending of St Johnstone striker Chris Kane for his blatant kick out and punch at Celtic defender Cameron Carter Vickers but also for booking the Hoops defender.
The reason Carter Vickers was booked was explained here by PFA Chief Executive, Fraser Wishart, but it doesn’t go far enough to excuse a refereeing performance that was by far, one of the worst we have witnessed at Celtic Park.
Walsh’s refusal to send off the St Johnstone player is even more strange seeing as he seems to have no issue brandishing the red card when it comes to refereeing games involving Rangers, but then I must just be a conspiracy theorist.
But Hugh Keevins was having none of it on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard.
When told by a Celtic fan that the referee lost complete control of the game after the incident, Keevins disagreed as he said.
After playing footage of Celtic gaffer Ange Postecoglou‘s post match interview, where the gaffer said the referee did ok, Keevins said, “So he certainly wasn’t [Ange Postecoglou] accusing the referee of having lost the place.
“As I said at the time on Saturday’s programme, Ange is a Greek Aussie. He has looked at that and it’s handbags.
“And I would say that I thought Tom Rogic got some treatment from St Johnstone from start to finish.
“But at no point had Nick Walsh lost control of the game.
“And I don’t think it had any effect on anything other than to say that having aimed a kick at Cameron Carter Vickers and then when Carter Vickers gets up, Chris Kane having raised his arm towards him, I do think he was lucky to stay on the park.”
So, if Walsh didn’t lose control of the match, how did the St Johnstone players manage to give Tom Rogic ‘some treatment’ throughout the match?
If Walsh didn’t lose control of the match, why was a succession of fouls prior to the Juranovic penalty not dealt with by the referee? Especially the off the ball incident with Efe Ambrose and Kyogo?
Not only has the ref had a nightmare, so has Keevins.
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