When Bobby Madden was appointed to referee Celtic’s game against Livingston at Celtic Park this afternoon it was met with widespread scepticism amongst the Hoops supporters.
The Celtic fans have always had a scathing opinion of the man in black and off the back of his first half performance, it is not hard to see why.
Madden’s refereeing decisions were baffling at best in the first 45 minutes of the game.
Awarding a foul against Callum McGregor when he rode a challenge AGAINST him was one of a variety of mind numbing calls the referee gave against the home side and the Celtic fans were in no mood for pleasantries on Twitter as they reacted to his performance:
Bobby Madden is at it already, are these referees ever going to give it a by?
— Courtney Chiellini 🇮🇹 (@cheesybiscuit_) October 30, 2021
Typical bobby madden at celtic games gives us nothing
— Christopher 🏴🏴 (@chrissy872) October 30, 2021
15 mins in and Bobby Madden has made 3 insane calls lol
— Tam Hughes (@TamHughes243017) October 30, 2021
Bobby Madden is having a shocker already
— Conario82 (@chrisconway1382) October 30, 2021
Bizzare stuff from Bobby Madden.
— CaI (@caim67) October 30, 2021
As the spotlight remains on referee’s after a week of controversy, Madden certainly hasn’t done anything to help take the pressure of his fellow referee’s with a fairly poor forty five minutes under his belt.
Madden received a rather ironic cheer as he awarded a free kick against Livingstons Omeonga as he took out Celtic winger Liel Abada after he planted a few kicks on Celtic captain Callum McGregor and midfielder David Turnbull.
He has as yet to book the Livingston player for persistent fouling but I’m sure he’ll get it right in the second 45 minutes.
But there was one hilarious tweet that made me chuckle about Livingston keeping Callum McGregor quiet so far this afternoon and it was beautifully put, “Bobby madden doing a good man marking job on Calmac thus far”.
Bobby madden doing a good man marking job on Calmac thus far
— Scozzese-Italiano-Tartaglia (@Joe_T2000) October 30, 2021
Brilliant!