Celtic became Scottish Premiership champions after beating Hearts 2-0 at Tynecastle yesterday, with goals from Kyogo and Oh clinching the title for the hoops for our second title in a row under Ange Postecoglou.
One of the big decisions in the game yesterday, perhaps the only real big decision, was the one referee Nick Walsh took to send off Hearts defender Alex Cochrane, as he took out Daizen Maeda who was going through on goal with Kyogo square to him for a tap in.
Walsh initially gave a yellow card, but was then called to the VAR screen by assistant Willie Collum, and then decided to upgrade his decision to a red card after watching the replays.
You can read what the Clyde SSB pundits thought of the decision here: Clyde SSB Pundits Unanimous Verdict On Celtic v Hearts Red Card Incident – Champions 67
And here is what Andy Walker said on Sky Sports commentary yesterday when Walsh gave the red card:
“I think this is a horrible use of VAR.”
“I think the game has been so good, the game’s now bee ruined.” “Had that stayed at a yellow card, no one would have complained.”
“And you just get the feeling, that if a referee can send a player off, he will.” “And I think the bar is so low for a red card.”
“There’s a coming together there, absolutely. But is he obviously getting a shot away? I’m not sure.”
Still incensed at the decision, Walker went on to add:
“It doesn’t matter what colour the strip is,” “If you can keep a player on the pitch out there, why don’t you?”
“I don’t think, if Nick Walsh had kept the yellow card, there would have been many complaints.”
“It’s ruined the game.”
Despite what Walker seems to believe, the referees and VAR aren’t there to makes games as interesting as possible for the neutrals and people like himself who wanted Hearts to win, they are there to uphold the laws of the game, and in the case of VAR, make sure that the decisions made are the correct ones.
“If you can keep a player on the pitch out there, why don’t you?”
This is the comment that really gets me. What a totally unprofessional, ridiculous thing to say.
Sure Andy, the officials should just totally ignore the rules of the game and f*ck over Celtic, just so you can enjoy Hearts having a better chance of beating Celtic?
An utterly shameful comment from Walker. And continually saying “it’s ruined the game”, yeah maybe from your point of view Andy because you would love it if Hearts beat Celtic, but the decision certainly didn’t ruin the game for Celtic supporters yesterday and actually, probably BENEFITTED the game for most neutrals watching, as they were able to see Celtic score two goals and see the fantastic scenes at the end of the game and enjoy a team winning the league, and they perhaps wouldn’t have gotten to see that had referee Nick Walsh totally ignored the laws of the game, simply to appease Andy Walker on commentary.
Thought the original decision was the correct decision made myself, so the real question should be was a real obvious wrong decision made in the first place?
Only confirms just how bad the refs in Scotland remain and still be swayed far to easily.
As such decisions are based upon interpretation and without enough to say a clear and obvious error has been made then why the need to change the original decision.
Nothing but a sign of weakness and also don’t like agreement with wanker either.
Still would have preferred to have won the game in the right way which we possibly would have done so regardless
Yeah it would have been great for us not to win, then go to ibrox and do it with no fans, as if 1400 is not bad enough, but no fans at ibrox what a total downer for a group of players who have given their all this season to have none of their own fans in the ground. What a wee country we live in. Hail hail.