Having viewed the incident that led to Celtic being awarded a spot-kick against Motherwell more often than we’ve put on socks, Football Daily still can’t understand how referee John Beaton arrived at his decision. Of course we’ve seen all the freeze-frame stills on Social Media Disgrace that suggest the ball probably did hit Sam Nicholson’s forehead-adjacent paw, but even then it doesn’t automatically follow that it was a foul. The power and trajectory with which the ball was sent back out over the touchline was clearly generated by the Motherwell defender’s big slab-head and not some overarm serve borrowed from the volleyball court. More crucially, what has also become abundantly clear in the ensuing frenzy of hysterical debate over whether or not Nicholson handled the ball, is that in initially declining to award Celtic a penalty the referee definitively did not make a clear-and-obvious error. It was not until he was sent to his screen by the curtain-twitchers in McStockley Park that Beaton messed up, by electing to re-referee an incident he’d already adjudicated in a perfectly satisfactory manner.
So controversial even English grandees such as Gary Lineker and Jeff Stelling couldn’t haud their wheesht, Beaton’s decision has been labelled in some quarters as the most controversial in Scottish Fitba history. While Football Daily would argue it isn’t even in the top three most controversial calls we’ve seen made in Celtic’s favour since last Friday, the ramifications could obviously be seismic in terms of the title race. “A horrendous decision that has once again embarrassed Scottish football,” thundered Ally McCoist on TalkSport. “I’m just trying to think logically how he would make that decision. But equally, on VAR guys, are we trying to tell each other that is a clear-and-obvious error? Come on! And by the way, exactly on that spot on Saturday night, Hearts should have been given a penalty.”
