Former ref defends Collum

Former ref Stuart Dougal has been in the papers since Sunday jumping to the defence of Willie Collum after the ref denied Celtic a penalty in the League Cup Final.

Dougal was in the Evening Times saying the ref was spot on and he admitted there was contact but was it illegal, was it enough to trip Stokes and he took another step before going down.

He even uses the reaction of Vidtor Wanyama as another reason to defend Collum by saying the midfielder had looked at him as if to say why didn’t you shoot.

This seems to be the way with former refs, they are quick to come out in the paper to defend the refs when they are getting a hard time. This would make you think the current crop never make mistakes.

It would also have been interesting how Dougal would have reacted if Collum had awarded the penalty. He would probably have said he got it right there was contact etc etc.

This particular decision, for me, could have gone either way as I think there was contact but was it enough to be awarded a penalty. Even so I am not convinved Stokes dived, as it now seems to be the modern way if you go down in the box and the ref decides it isn’t a penalty it must be a dive. Don’t think so….

I have seen too many horrendous decisions this season to believe our refs are doing well, and I think rather than defend them all the time we need an open debate about how we are going to raise the standard.

This would lead to an end to all of these debates every week in the papers, and put the compliance officer out of a job!