Inconsistencies in accountability are clearly off the scale

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The Celtic Star

·20 December 2024

Inconsistencies in accountability are clearly off the scale

Anthony Ralston insists that the penalty meltdown post-Sunday has not put a dampener on Celtic’s Scottish League Cup success…

Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

The 26 year-old right-back was a second-half substitute for the injured Alistair Johnston at Hampden last weekend and impressed during the rest of the regulation period and into extra-time.

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Celtic won all domestic honours on offer in the year 2024

Celtic’s dramatic 5-4 penalty shootout victory following a 3-3 draw against their rivals in 120 minutes of frantic football meant that Brendan Rodgers’ side secured the club’s 119th trophy in their 137-year history. Subsequently, the Hoops won all domestic honours on offer in the year 2024.

Despite the match being a Scottish League Cup final classic and one for the ages, majority of the commentary after the game has been about the non-penalty award after Liam Scales was adjudged to have pulled theRangers winger Vaclav Cerny outside the box.

Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Subsequently, SFA Head of Refereeing Willie Collum yesterday admitted in the ‘VAR Review,’ with Clyde 1 SSB host Gordon Duncan that the error made over the penalty incident from VAR duo Alan Muir and AVAR Frank Connor at Clydesdale House was “unacceptable.”

Rhetorical question

Transparency and accountability seem to have only worked one way this week. Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell explained on Monday that he had talks with Collum over a glaring non-penalty award that should have been given at Fir Park on Saturday afternoon where the Steelmen faced Dundee United. Are the referee and VAR from that specific match on top-flight duties this week? Rhetorical question.

David Dickinson’s Falkirk howler

Likewise, David Dickinson [Sunday’s referee at Tannadice] produced a controversial red card at Somerset Park on Saturday between Ayr United and Falkirk. Luke Graham’s sending-off offence after nine minutes has been rescinded. Dickinson’s reward? To be the man in the middle for the Scottish Premiership’s televised game eight days later. The inconsistencies in accountability are clearly off the scale.

However, Celtic’s backup right-back Anthony Ralston rightfully explained that the trophy rests in the Parkhead trophy room despite the meltdown within all Scottish football quarters over the past week.

“I don’t feel it has put any sort of dampener on our success,” Ralston told STV website, “We’re all buzzing, we’re all extremely happy with the outcome of the game.”

Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Hands on the trophy

“We got our hands on the trophy, and that’s all we really care about to be honest, everything else is not something that we’re going to overly pay attention to. It’s not obviously our place to do that.”

“From my point of view, I didn’t really look too much into it after the game. There was an on-field decision made at the time, which isn’t down to us to make as players. There wasn’t much said about it until after the game, when ultimately, we’d won.”

Ralston added that it is the role of the officials to make the decisions, and ultimately the players on the pitch can only deliver the result – and thus, he and his teammates produced on the biggest stage domestically once again.

Celtic celebrations after winning the Premier Sports Cup Final between Celtic and theRangers at Hampden on Sunday 15 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Part and parcel of football

“It’s part and parcel of football. And, I can speak on behalf of the other lads, we don’t take much to do with it, to be honest. Let the officials do that side of it. And the important thing for us is we had a job to do, which was win the trophy, which we’re all delighted that we’ve managed to do.”

“It’s an important point in our history and as a club and we’re delighted to be able to deliver that to the fans all around the world, everyone that tuned in, everyone that was at the game, everybody connected. It’s a special thing. It’s another marker for us as a group of players and we want to keep delivering success, and that’s what drives us every day to do that.”

With doubts over Alistair Johnston’s fitness heading into Sunday’s contest with Jim Goodwin’s side, Brendan Rodgers could call upon the Scotland defender to start only his second game in the league this season.

Conor Spence