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Unfortunately I think that in the long run that this will work against most of the provincial clubs. Sir Alex Ferguson has perfected the " putting the ref under pressure tactic down south " but Neil Lennon has tried to copy this, and for him he is not yet an untouchable god like manager. It raises many debates this. If say 60% of the scottish population are Old Firm FANS or have a strong incling to either side, that means refs are continually in charge of their favoured team. As most refs are from the central belt thiswill increase the likely hood of officiating their boyhood team. If their is 80 refs, assistant refs, and 4th officials then around 50 of them will have supported the old firm. As their support is evenly split in Scotland, or Rangers have less as the attract less fans, does this mean Celtic have the majority of the referee supporters. So why do they feel so agrieved. Over the years of watching football, live and on tv, I have always felt that the old firm get the majority of 50/50 decisions, in games where i have no loyalty ie not involving ICT, and have amused myself when they play each other at their actions when either doesnt get the decisions they want. However I has not gone unnoticed that in the blue corner Mr Smith the current incumbant does not take to ranting too much against referees. The ref who discoloured the truth should resign or be demoted. End of story. But if refs are to be hung for lying or cheating and being biast, as they have all been labeled by Celtic FC, SHOULD WE TREAT THE PLAYERS THE SAME WAY. One live tv game recently saw the same Celtic player blatantly dive 3 times in the opposition penalty box. He was rightly booked for the first, but the ref ignored the following two. Was the ref biast by not sending him off for a second act of cheating, or is it alright that this player tried to put more pressure on the already under fire refs thinking they would buckle as it was the unfairly treated Celtic FC, which was by the same player who has also said in the media that Celtic dont get decisions because they are one of the biggest teams in the world! What utter utter p1sh. I fear that Parkhead will become an Old Trafford as far as refs giving the opposition penalties is concerned. How many penalties have Utd had given AGAINST them at home. Refs will be scared to give them at the home of the picked on club. I have always thought that our refs are also far too lenient to the old firm in Scotland. They often seem extremely physical and get away with far less bookings than they deserve. Why oh why when they play in Europe with foreign referees do they all of a sudden get so many players booked and lose more penalties etc. Maybe it because the ref has absolutely no bias whatsoever. I wonder how many titles would change hands between the big two, and cups if all the games going back were reviewed properly. 3 seasons ago Celtic won the league on a catalogue of poor decisions from referees. Nakamura free kick goal v St Mirren, Diamonds Aberdeen equaliser at Parkhead wrongly ruled out in the last minute, 4 points that won the league. Is It not the same refs 3 years on, there were also some wrong decisions at the start of that season I remember going the Celtic way. But hey Rangers get seasons where it goes for them too. Unfortunately it never seems to be our year for these decisions. So are we going to get an avalanche of decisions going Celtics way, or will refs stop giving them the favour of doubt. Cant decide if they game goes ahead on Saturday if it would be a good thing for us, or a bad thing. But paranoia will be the state of every decision from the parkhead faithfull at every tackle, every push, every pull and every dive. Who should be punished for putting us into such a turmoil throughout the game. If I were a Doomhammer or a dirty Stag I wouldnt be too happy with them. Clubs will loose gate money and all the rest as midweek will attract smaller crowds, and hardly any kids. Admitedly Parkhead will lose the greatest amount, but who should be punished. Mr Reid, Mr Lennon, ex players, Mr Hooper, Mark McGhee for his comments after we beat them - about the Parkhead 9-0 ref, the SPL, SFA, Refs Commission. In an overhaul, the Utd- Celtic ref should be demoted for the rest of the season, Mr Reid, Mr Lennon should both be fined heavily - feeding the paranoia that can potentially spark crowd trouble ( imagine its 0-0 and Shinnie wins a last minute penalty on Saturday ). Celtic should maybe be fined or deducted points, but it cant be anything that effects their fans ( like ground closure for 2 or 3 games ) as they didnt directly cause the histeria and paranoia, but it is most likely they who have been threatening refs, their families and workplaces. Hooper should be warned as I think he is too daft to realise what he was saying. McGhee bidded his time to speak so probably just a warning, but he was more directing his wrath at the pressure celtic put on the ref. How would the SFA act if this was Caley Thistle or St Johnstone spouting of about refs. We would have been dealt with long before now. The beaks are scared of upsetting Rangers and Celtic, so probably little will be done unfortunately. One rule for them another rule for the rest of us. If they want to get out of scottich football so badly, and the English Premiership wont take them, why dont they go and compete in Ireland where they say they come from. That would extinguish the hate between the Two Ugly Biased Sisters.

Imagine it though - the Irish Football Association decide to offer up refs for the SPL and ref for Parkhead is William Boyne, Shankill FA, with a King Billy tat on one arm and '1690' on his right hand knuckles. We win 3-0, two dodgy penalties and a Tokely goal where he punches Mastabatajovic in the face then carries the ball over the line. The ref high fives our players running off the pitch and joins them in throwing Terry Butcher in the bath at full time. Imagine the point-and-laugh potential of it, it would be impossible to have unpished breeks at the hordes of idiots turning purple with apoplexy in the home end. I am looking forward to it.

Just simply cant believe its Celtic moaning about the decisions given by referees. A member of the Old Firm club feeling badly treated by refs ? Welcome to our World. Hamilton. Raith Rovers. Hearts Airdrie etc etc......... anyone other than the Old Firm.! And to listen to Neil Lennon castigating and shouting about liars? Maybe remind folk back at Ceptic Park about a certain incident when one of our players was red carded following the direct result of a certain player feigning injury, namely an elbow in the face, when it was proved later that he wasnt touched. Went down like he d been shot. What happened to him ? Sqaure root of bu88er all happened to him. Was this lying ? Was this cheating ? Not if they do it perhaps. Get them down from their moral high ground and take a look at themselves. And John Reid ? Dinna . Jist dinna . Thats better.....Rant over.

I felt the booing of Brewster was out of order as well. Those booing may say it was just a bit of banter but if you are being booed all you hear is a boo and you can't say "Oh, listen - sounds like a banter type boo, that's OK then!" Whether it was intented as light hearted on the night or not we all know and Brewster will know that those booing don't like him. It was a night of celebration spoiled for some by an ignorant show of disprespect by a very small minority. Some may feel Brewster is fair game for a bit of disrespect but last night was not the time nor the place. The point is that the night was about Roy McBain. Roy invited Brewster to play because he has respect for Brewster from the time Brewster was Roy's manager. And Brewster was there because of the respect he has for Roy. Those booing were therefore showing disrespect not just to Brewster but to Roy by their infantile behaviour - shame on you.

If the Scottish Refs decide to withdraw their labour/strike then I wouldn't go to the game if it was officiated by a foreign Ref. I really dislike the way the football has gone in recent years and the flooding of the game with huge amounts of money resulting in massive wages and enormous ticket prices has, for me, hugely eroded what football, and sport in general, is all about. If the referees striking can bring a little bit of respect and perspective back into the game then that is well worth supporting and missing a game for. To bring in foreign referees would totally undermine the officials in this country at a time when the SFA should be trying to offer more, not less, support. It really could cause irreparable damage.

I use a number of forums for professional and hobby purposes, and this site ranks up there as one that is well moderated, easy to operate and has a decent membership which provides some excellent banter as well as thought-provoking discussions. Registering for me was no inconvenience, in fact I would expect a reasonable site to request it to ensure that those wishing to get involved were there for the right reasons. Not just an internet security measure but one to screen out the really troublesome trolls, although it doesn't deter the really cheeky troublemakers (remember the sheep fan who made a brief appearance earlier in the year and then dropped out again having been well and truly flamed?? ) I regard this site very highly and because of these measures, I would recommend it without hesitation to any ICT fans not currently using it. Fact is, while some of us use forums to a greater or lesser extent the majority of people don't. Making it open access would not improve numbers and indeed, would only damage it for all the reasons already posted.

I too gave you a red dot. You don't go to referee a game and expect to be showered with obscenities and threats of physical violence, or threats of and / or having your car vandalised, your family threatened, your windows smashed or hit with coins. This issue is about respect. Comparing it to someone joining the armed forces seems a bit abstract to me. People sign up to the armed forces in the knowledge that you might get injured. People sitting the 30 hour referee course, taking the exam and then going out to referee games on public parks is a completely different scenario entirely. The vast majority of people who are referees (not your ?800 a match ones) do it to help young players improve and help the club, youth development or school which they work with. The actions of certain people in the SPL does have an effect on youngsters playing the game. Pushy parents who think that their child is a great prospect act like a school / youth game is the champions league final. There's an inherent lack of respect which must be addressed here. Players don't barrage other players with criticism like this. Mangers don't do it to other managers. Chairmen don't do it to other chairmen. But it's ok for everyone to have a go at the referees? This is far bigger than what is happening at present and I support the cat 1s who are taking this action.

All about doing your homework with ebay sellers and if they have a separate online shop and you are comfortable that you'll get good service then it sounds better than most. Regarding AVG....I was a big fan of it but noticed more recently that it had started to become a bit of a resource hog. After trying some alternates I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials and so far so good on that. Another vote for using Windows Firewall from me too. One other programme I put on every new PC/Laptop is CCleaner (Crap Cleaner). It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Mahonio - You need to get over this now - The more you harp on about it, the worse it will get. Reputation voting is a system aimed at inarticulate yobs, who, unlike you, are so sadly lacking, they don't even possess the ability to string a couple of sentences together.

I wouldn't shed any tears if reputation voting was scrapped. What on earth is wrong with responding with a typed message to any post you strongly agree or disagree with? Thinking about what you want to say, and how you are going to say it can be a very worthwhile exercise, and very beneficial to one's education. I've noticed over the years just how much certain posters have actually improved their writing, spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary, etc, just by submitting regular contributions to this forum. Posters like Miss ICT, Georgeious, Kingsmills, The Immortal Howden Ender and several others have actually managed to dramatically improve their communicative skills, by succeeding in an environment where our state education system clearly let them down badly. These posters owe CTO a huge debt of gratitude.

Was lucky enough to be at the match last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Bazza totally impressed me - another legend! I'm also at a complete loss to understand why an element of the crowd was booing Brewster all the time - utterly disgraceful considering it was Roy's night and I thought the whole idea of a testimonial was to have a fun night to support a player who's been a true servant of the club. Surely these eejits need to remember this and put stupid grudges aside for one night??? Let's face it, he didn't need to turn up, but he did for Roy's special night and fair play to him for doing so. Some of us also had the misfortune of having missiles lobbed at us from the back of the stand - okay they were only a pencil and a pen, but from a distance these things can injure someone. Why not enjoy the game and keep the childish antics outside the ground???

I agree with you madsooz regardless of what sectionG think off Brewster to boo him on Roy's big night shows a total lack of respect Section G = Lack of class dougal

I'm just gonna shut up now..And I wonder why I have soo many red dots