Honest Mistakes: League Cup Final Special
The carefully crafted refereeing and VAR team have come in from some carefully crafted entitlement-led abuse. We'll let a neutral decide.
The League Cup Final at Hampden threw up some interesting calls, so of course as my Christmas present to the Yorkshire Whistler, he was gifted the opportunity to comment on it.
The impact of incorrect big calls can be evaluated using the framework outlined here -> Honest Mistakes in the SPFL.
15/12/24 Celtic vs The Rangers
Incident 1
Referee: John Beaton
Game Minute: 63rd
Score At Time: 2-1
Incident: Diomande goes down in the box
Outcome: Free kick to Celtic for a foul on Carter-Vickers
Evidence: Sportscene - Premiership Highlights 2024/25: 15/12/2024 - BBC iPlayer
At 9:23
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict:
Initial on-field decision: Free kick to Celtic for foul on Carter-Vickers
Diomande goes down in the box and appeals for a foul only for the referee to award a defensive free kick in the build-up. Just prior to Diomande getting to the ball, Carter-Vickers slides to clear the ball under the challenge of a Rangers player. The Celtic man makes contact with the ball before receiving a very slight clip on the shin as he follows through on the slide. Contact is minimal but on balance, I can support the award of the defensive free kick.
Therefore, the Diomande incident is largely irrelevant. For clarity, if I was reviewing the Diomande challenge on its own merits, I would still not have expected a penalty to be awarded as Kuhn starts to stretch his foot out to play the ball before stopping his momentum at the last second. Diomande appears to go down anticipating contact on his left leg that doesn’t actually materialise.
On a side note, I feel the referee could have avoided the penalty shouts by being more decisive with how quickly he awards the defensive free kick. He appears to delay his decision unnecessarily. A delayed decision is understandable if he was waiting for a potential advantage to unfold for Celtic, but inside their own 18 yard box this is clearly not the location or time to wait for a potential highly unlikely defensive advantage.
Verdict: CORRECT decision
Expected Points Outcome: No impact
Incident 2
Referee: John Beaton
Game Minute: 87th
Score At Time: 2-2
Incident: Kuhn scores for Celtic
Outcome: Goal to Celtic
Evidence: Sportscene - Premiership Highlights 2024/25: 15/12/2024 - BBC iPlayer
At 11:26
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict:
Initial on-field decision: Goal to Celtic
Kuhn gets on the end of a cut back to give Celtic a late lead. Right at the start of this attack Diomande stretches too late to block a through ball near the halfway line. Kuhn is stationary and although near the Rangers man, in no way trips or impedes his opponent who is simply off balance and over-stretching.
Verdict: CORRECT decision
Expected Points Outcome: No impact
Incident 2
Referee: John Beaton
Game Minute: 93rd
Score At Time: 3-3
Incident: Cerny goes down under pressure from Scales
Outcome: Free kick to TRFC
Evidence: Sportscene - Premiership Highlights 2024/25: 15/12/2024 - BBC iPlayer
At 13:35
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict:
Initial on-field decision: Free kick to TRFC on edge of box
Scales has a heavy touch just outside his 18-yard box which sees Cerny nip and steal the ball. Scales in an effort to recover pulls on Cerny's shirt and is rightly penalised.
There is a question mark over whether this offence will occur inside the penalty area. If this was the case, then a penalty would have been the expected outcome. Having reviewed the several replays, it is not conclusive if Cerny was inside the box as the foul was committed against him.
As I can’t find any concrete footage that shows Cerny is inside the box, I would support the on-field decision to award the free kick only.
Verdict: CORRECT decision
Expected Points Outcome: No impact
Summary
My thanks as always to the Yorkshire Whistler.
I am surprised at the last call but there can no doubt given the history of decisions over the years that the Yorkshire Whistler calls it as he sees it and infuriates all equally!
Which means he is doing a good job!
There was an incident of a shocking tackle from behind by Cerny on Kuhn where he drags his studs right down his achieves it was a shocker and completely missed, added to this there was the yellow card on Carter Vickers that was a clear clean challenge, fair to say their was a lack of consistency & decisiveness (picked up by YW) throughout the match, that must have infuriated both sets of supporters, thing is, for only half of that support, is the photograph of the man in the middle in his high school year book professing his love for one club an issue and there in lies the problem. All sides were probably critical of his performance throughout the match, but only one side have him as theirs, that he ultimately makes the decision that pushes them over the edge is laughable in the extreme. Who knows his thought process in making that decision, only he does. Was he totting up, did he call it honestly, did he shit it? We'll never know, truth is he just shouldn't be there plain and simple, and until such times as total transparency in recruitment and officialdom within the SFA is achieved, this is never going away! SEEMPLES!
I share Alan's surprise about the third call regarding the penalty, tbh. From the footage I seen at least, it seemed clear the foul/pull continued/spilled over into the box. Really lamentable from Scales.
On a side note, has anyone managed to unearth a clearer clip of Jefte's challenge on Kuhn? I'd be interested to see that one again.