Sunday saw the Old Firm’s womens’ sides take their turn in the derby spotlight.
But the glare of scrutiny being flashed in the faces of the match officials was every bit as bright as the poweder keg clashes involving Celtic and Rangers men’s teams. Jo Potter’s Gers edged out a five-goal thriller thanks to Chelsea Cornet’s sensational winner. But the 3-2 win for the Blue Belles proved controversial after Celtic boss Elena Sadiku was sent off for sarcastically applauding referee Jamie Wilkie, who had just handed the Ibrox side a debated penalty.
The officiating enraged the Parkhead side and Michael Emonds reckons they were right to be angry, saying: “The referees are even at it in the women’s game. Jamie Wilkie just guaranteed he’ll be fast tracked into the Premiership by shamelessly awarding Rangers Women an outrageous penalty kick straight out the Ibrox scrapbook of dodgy awards. Never in the the history of Scottish football has one club benefited from dodgy penalties more than the Govan Galacticos.”
But John Stewart, Newton Mearns, said: “I see the Celtic Women team are just like their male counterparts, always bleating, always cheated, never defeated.” Scott Gowers, Edinburgh , was impressed by the quality on show, especially Cornet’s winner as he said: “I hope there is no sexism when it comes to goal of the season.
“Anyone who saw Chelsea Cornet’s goal against Celtic surely could only look on in awe. The goal was spectacular and should definitely be in contention for the Scottish goal of the season.”
But it’s the standard of refereeing in the men’s game that continues to upset the Hotline regulars. John Caw emailed in: “Started watching two games on Sunday but turned both of them off due to extremely poor refereeing decisions.
“They hand out cards like confetti for mysterious decisions and yet they constantly blunder and get away with it.
“Let’s get football back to people who know what football is about, not these people who don’t know a ball is made to go round. Disgusted.”
Arrin Geddes, Irvine, added: “Regular caller Chris Lowe’s obsession with Celtic refereeing decisions is borderline obsessive. This league won’t be won by refereeing decisions, it will be won because Celtic, or Aberdeen, are miles ahead of every other team in the league.”
Speaking of whom, Chris Lowe, Yoker, called to say: “With his weekly thuggery ignored in Scotland, Liam Scales must have got a shock to be shown two yellow cards as he was sent off during Ireland’s 5-0 Wembley hammering at the hands of England. A Scottish official would have needed to have been wearing a nappy before issuing those cards.”
Robert Livingstone, Palm Beach, called to respond to Record Sport ’s exclusive sit down with former Rangers defender Connor Goldson.
He said: “So Goldson’s spinning the story he was forced out by a unknown person but it seems mostly sour grapes. His days were already numbered after so many terrible performances, we all wanted rid of him. He was all washed up, his best days were over so no matter who made that decision, it was the right one.”