Pundit Peter Martin has been left in disbelief after the refereeing performance from Bobby Madden during Celtic’s last game.
Over the weekend, the Bhoys’ Scottish Cup campaign came to an end over the weekend as they fell to a 2-1 defeat in an Old Firm clash at Hampden Park.
Despite the result, one of the key talking points after the game has been the standard of officiating throughout the match – which negatively impacted both sides at different times.
Was Calvin Bassey offside for Rangers' winning goal?
Yes
No
Indeed, while speaking on the PLZ Soccer Show, Martin claimed that he and other journalists in the press box could not believe what they were seeing.
He explained: “I thought he had a shocker, I thought he was woeful for both sides. I thought he was so inept in the game, it defied belief. Some of his decisions…
“I’m looking around the whole press box and they’re actually looking at him thinking, can he continue in this vein? It was bewildering at times.”
TIF Thoughts on Bobby Madden and Celtic…
One of the key issues Madden and his team may have got wrong was a potential offside call on Calvin Bassey as he received the ball before creating the game-winning goal.
However, while that decision was marginal, others were not so tight. Indeed, FootballScotland pointed out a number of occasions in which the referee seemed to get it wrong. Notably, they mention the way Kemar Roofe was lucky not to get sent off for a ‘horror’ foul on Daizen Maeda. They also highlight an odd moment when Celtic lost a free-kick because David Turnbull took it too quickly.
As Martin mentions, though, it wasn’t because of any bias. Rangers suffered from the poor officiating, too, as Celtic were awarded a cheap free-kick which lead to their only goal of the game.
In the end, regardless of the referee, the Bhoys lost out and will not be able to lift that particular piece of silverware this season.
In other news: Went unseen: Celtic supporters will be absolutely livid as image appears – opinion