Now initially I was evidently biased and thought that it was a stonewall penalty and a sending off - Having seen the replays I stick by that although it may have been just outside the box. Some of my mates thought that Draper was very clever and played for it. If you look at the telly different angles suggest different perspectives. ME I now think that he did cleverly play for it - but SO WHAT ?. The referee should have booked him if it was a dive. ???

Utterly dangerous tackle that should be banned worldwide. The problem for Scottish football is that it needs referees and these people are probably subject to significant abuse, as are their families, for the decisions they make or do not make. It must be pretty intimidating.

Not sure if the Compliance Officer can take the weight off Alan and take retrospective action against Craig Gordon - Scottish football just cannot endorse such dangerous play.

 

Absolute shocker of a challenge from Gordon, and not for the first time. As for Ross Draper one, I'm over it now, but something needs to be done about the standard and inconsistency of the refereeing in this country. Bring back the officials from Luxembourg who showed our numpties how to do it properly.

Harry Forrester was lucky not to see red for this challenge the other night:
 

The referee? Don Robertson...

In such short clips from just one angle it can be difficult to get a proper appreciation of the incident.  However, in Gordon's case what is clear is that he had both feet off the ground and he was leading with his foot 3ft off the ground with his studs showing.  Intentional or not, it was reckless and a red card without any doubt.  Unfortunately I don't think the compliance officer will be able to take any action here.  Remember when Celtic vindictively tried to have Meekings punished for his alleged handball in the semi-final, the ruling was that the officials had seen the incident but had adjudged it not to be handball.  Whether or not it was a correct decision was not relevant because the role of the Compliance Officer is to deal with incidents which the match officials did not see.  Clearly. the ref saw the incident last night as he gave Gordon a yellow card.

I absolutely agree that refs are under huge pressure and face abuse when they make incorrect decisions.  That abuse will naturally be greatest when the error goes against the clubs with the biggest support and therefore they tend to give those clubs the benefit of the doubt.  The concept of the Compliance Officer being empowered to take retrospective action when refs get things wrong is OK so far as it allows a player to be punished with an appropriate ban, but the danger there is that it would make refs even more inclined to chicken out of sending players off.  They may think that if it really should have been a red card, the CO will deal with it later.  That would not be right in the context of the match and it is important that decisive action is taken during the match so that teams suffer the consequence of the recklessness of their players.

Last night, Celtic should have played the entire 2nd half with 10 men.  Would it have made a difference to the final outcome?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  What I do know is that Alloa were cheated out of the opportunity of finding out.  All it needed was an official sitting in front of a TV monitor to take responsibility for the decision and give a clear steer to the referee through his earpiece. It's all very well criticising referees for some of the dreadful decisions they make, but things are unlikely to improve until referees get meaningful support from the football authorities.  Sadly, I can't see that happening any time soon.

I don't have them to hand at present, but the Judicial Panel Protocols make clear allowance for the Compliance Officer to take retrospective action in scenarios involving (or alleged to have involved) Serious Foul Play.  This is regardless of whether or not the referee has taken any action at the time.

The incident with Josh did not fall into this as it was not Serious Foul Play or any of the other listed scenarios that can be re-visited.