Posts Tagged ‘David Weir’

Referee admits his error in denying Celtic penalty

The Old Firm derby referee admits to an ‘error of judgment’ that will be little comfort to Tony Mowbray

Any sense of injustice harboured by Celtic following their Old Firm defeat yesterday would have intensified today after the admission by the match referee, Craig Thomson, that he should have awarded an early penalty to Tony Mowbray’s side at Ibrox Park.

Rangers were already in the lead when David Weir made a clearly illegal 12th-minute challenge on Shaun Maloney, but Thomson did not deem it worthy of action. Four minutes later, Kenny Miller scored what proved to be a decisive second for the hosts. Celtic were later awarded a penalty, converted by Aiden McGeady, but were unable to equalise.

The Scottish FA’s head of refereeing, Hugh Dallas, took the unusual step of effectively issuing an apology to Celtic on Thomson’s behalf. “Craig and I have had our post match debrief,” Dallas explained. “Whilst I would compliment Craig for his overall handling of the encounter, he is disappointed at his error of judgment when he decided against awarding a penalty to the visiting team in the 12th minute.

“Taking charge of an Old Firm game is both high-profile and challenging. Referees are well aware that their performance will be judged on calling the major decisions correctly. Our referees are fitter than they have ever been and our referees are better prepared for matches than they have ever been.

“We are working each and every day with our top officials to make sure that they are in a position to get the big calls right. However, mistakes are part and parcel of football. I think that it says a lot for the character and professionalism of Craig that he has been more than willing to hold his hands up on this one.”

In his immediate post-match interviews Mowbray would not entertain suggestions that the referee’s refusal to give that early penalty was a decisive moment in the game, and instead focused blame on Celtic’s poor defending. “If replays show it should have been a penalty, does it matter?” he asked. “The referee makes his decision as he sees fit and has one shot at making that decision. We gave Rangers a two-goal start and they didn’t really have to do anything for the goals. Long punts down the middle, allowing the ball to bounce, you could have driven a bus through the gaps.”

Celtic maintained that stance today by declining to publicly acknowledge the sentiments of Dallas. Both Maloney and the Celtic full-back Mark Wilson received bookings for diving elsewhere in a typically fraught Old Firm derby.

The SFA also confirmed today that the Celtic defender Glenn Loovens will have his appeal over a one-match ban heard on 15 October. The Dutchman was retrospectively punished for a challenge on Rangers’ Maurice Edu during a match in May but instantly protested. Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the SFA, is among those who have criticised the time it has taken for the appeal to be formally conducted.

Mowbray has been left nursing the walking wounded after Sunday’s encounter which Rangers won 2-1 to cut Celtic’s lead in the Scottish Premier League to a point. Celtic’s first-choice full-backs, Andreas Hinkel and Danny Fox, are sidelined through injury and Stephen McManus, Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald picked up knocks at Ibrox. Barry Robson, who would otherwise have featured against Rangers, injured his hamstring during training on Saturday while Scott Brown will visit a specialist in London tomorrow with an ongoing ankle complaint.

“We have got to wait and see, there were a lot of players with ice on in the dressing room at Ibrox,” Mowbray said. “Maloney has got an achilles problem, Brown, obviously we know about his ankle. McManus has got stitches, whether that is a problem for him or not, I don’t know. All we can do is wait and see how they are over the next few days.”

It will be at least some form of relief to Celtic’s manager that his team have no competitive match until Saturday week, when Motherwell visit Glasgow’s east end.

Scotland 0-1 Holland

Hope has given way to despair in the hearts of Scotland. The finest display of George Burley’s reign could not prevent an ailing World Cup campaign finally flat-lining against Holland, and now it falls to the Scottish Football Association to decide if there is life left in its choice of manager. On the evidence of last night the answer is yes, although Burley would not be in peril nor Scotland out of contention had the evidence arrived earlier.

The luckless Scotland manager had appealed for a performance forged on the nation’s best qualities, citing passion, courage, belief and bravery. He received all that and more but a calamitous goal that deflated Hampden with eight minutes to go, when David Weir stretched his 39-year-old body to a long ball and succeeded only in releasing the precocious substitute Eljero Elia for the winner, deprived Scotland of the point they deserved and second place in Group Nine.

Warm applause followed Scotland’s devastated players down the tunnel, and the manner of Elia’s winner was typical of this campaign. But Burley’s remit was to qualify for South Africa when he succeeded Alex McLeish, who also failed to qualify for a major tournament but improved Scotland’s world ranking and therefore prospects in the draw for the World Cup. Trailing in third behind Norway represents serious failure, though this performance leaves the SFA with a dilemma.

Despite relentless personal criticism Burley last night insisted he wanted to remain. “We were one step away,” he cursed. “It is a similar scenario to the last qualifying campaign. It is up to the SFA but I am looking forward to the next few games as Scotland manager. Everybody needs to improve; the manager, coaches and players. We came close. It’s been very competitive, expectations have been very high and we just needed a break tonight but we didn’t get it.”

Certainly no Scotland manager could have cajoled more from the talent at his disposal than what unfolded against aHolland side that is now the first in the country’s illustrious history to qualify with a 100% record. In a breathless first half it was Burley’s refusal to rely on defence and his players’ relentless endeavour, with Darren Fletcher to the fore, that impressed more than Dutch panache, although the visitors’ class in attack ensured there was no respite from the tension.

Holland served an early warning when Dirk Kuyt, later booked for making the most of a Stephen McManus pull inside the Scotland area, struck David Marshall’s post in the third minute. Cardiff City’s goalkeeper, a late call-up for the injured Craig Gordon, was also in need of redemption after his nerve-wracked display in the 4-0 trouncing in Norway. A fine save from Wesley Sneijder and two superb blocks when one-on-one against Arjen Robben, standing tall and blocking at close range on both occasions provided an improved foundation.

Bert van Marwijk’s team secured their place in South Africa for June; their quest for perfection in qualifying plus leftovers from Arsenal’s recent defeat at Manchester United had ensured there was no let-up in commitment on their part. Robin van Persie and Fletcher went head-to-head following a scything foul on the Scotland captain, who responded in kind. It was Fletcher Arsène Wenger had in mind when he railed against United’s “anti-football” at Old Trafford. Here his only incentive was to avoid an anti-climax.

The United midfielder was outstanding, delivering the big performance he admitted has escaped him too many times under Burley, and it spoke volumes of the Scotland display in the first half that they were only secondary to the Dutch in terms of finesse on the final ball. But they would pay dearly for missed opportunities.

On a night of agonising close calls Scott Brown just failed to convert when he threw himself at Alan Hutton’s cross over the Dutch defence. Kenny Miller struck the bar from an acute angle with Holland’s stand-in keeper, Michel Vorm, completely deceived, then Steven Naismith, Burley’s last bold selection, had a 25-yard drive pushed on to a post by the man from Utrecht. The rebound fell perfectly for Miller, his chance to finally repay his manager’s faith had arrived, but Vorm recovered brilliantly to block the effort and Scotland despaired once more.

Holland were an entirely different proposition after the interval, though Miller was again denied by Vorm, and Elia, racing clear on to Weir’s slip, rounded Marshall before delivering the last cruel blow for Burley and Scotland. They may not recover together.

Rangers 4-1 Hamilton

Rangers strode virtually unchallenged back to the top of the Scottish Premier League and, barring a wide-margin victory for either Hibernian or Celtic when those two meet at Easter Road today, the champions are likely to remain there.

The Ibrox side’s ascendancy was made on the back of goals from Steven Whittaker and Kris Boyd, each having delivered a brace, but their general superiority over largely hapless Hamilton Academical made the contest something of a mismatch. By the time Mark McLaughlin scored a consolation with a late header from a corner kick, the stadium was almost empty.

Visits to venues such as Ibrox by teams like Hamilton almost invariably carry undertones of damage limitation, and this latest example of the genre conformed precisely to the convention.

The Lanarkshire side demonstrated hardly any inclination to operate in the vicinity of the home goalkeeper, Allan McGregor, seemingly preferring to swarm in numbers in front of their own, Tomas Cerny, in an attempt to minimise Rangers’ score.

It was an approach that simply encourages champions to flex their muscles, and Rangers had bullied their opponents into submission before a third of the match had been completed. What is also common to these occasions is that the odds-on favourites will get their goals cheaply. The two with which Whittaker and Boyd sent the Ibrox side on their way could be called complimentary.

David Weir began the move for the first with a pass to Steven Davis in the inside-right position and while the midfielder’s low through ball to Whittaker was admirably measured, the full-back did not meet a challenge as he strode into the area on the right and drilled the ball low into the far corner.

If the Hamilton defenders were guilty of lethargy then, they were quite shocking in the way they conceded the second. Kenny Miller tried to raid on the left, but was dispossessed by Martin Canning. In his pathetic attempt at a clearance, the right-back simply passed the ball straight to Stevie Naismith. His cross was headed into the air and looped towards Boyd, who did not even have to jump as he sent a free header dropping over Cerny.

In truth, Rangers should have been even further ahead, but a number of players, notably Miller and Davis, had squandered earlier opportunities. This failure to convert their superiority during that oppressive period seemed to encourage Hamilton in a second half in which they were appreciably more ambitious.

There was only the occasional moment of menace in the Rangers defence, but it was enough to create a pleasing difference in the visitors’ performance and give their small coterie of supporters something to cheer.

James McArthur tested McGregor with a drive to the goalkeeper’s near post from the left side of the box after he had coasted past Madjid Bougherra with some slick footwork. That moment came soon after Derek Lyle had forced the goalkeeper to scramble a save at the same post with a low, curling free-kick from the left.

While those episodes might have lifted the spirits of the visitors, however, they also prefaced a raising of tempo and pressure by the home side, who would double their advantage within a few minutes, as Boyd and Whittaker each grabbed a second goal.

Boyd’s came from a powerful left-foot drive after Naismith had bolted down the left and played a perfectly-measured cut-back, and Whittaker played a 1-2 with Davis before beating Cerny with a curling, left-foot drive from 22 yards.

Burley remains defiant in face of concerted criticism

• Scotland manager’s family hurt by backlash after Norway defeat
• Burley says he is fully focused on last two qualifiers

George Burley said today that his family had suffered more from the recent negative publicity directed towards him than the embattled Scotland manager had himself.

The Scots’ 4-0 defeat in Norway earlier this month prompted the most vitriolic reaction yet from the country’s media and supporters, who have never fully embraced Burley. As he named a 25-man party for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Holland, the former Ipswich Town and Hearts manager was again asked about his future.

“In football, you get criticism,” Burley said. “It hasn’t bothered me but it’s not great for my family. I know my dad picked up one newspaper and shoved it straight in the bin, which was probably the best thing for it.

“That’s life. But it’s not going to change my focus. I’ve had it from day one – certain people didn’t think I should get the job in the first place and even before a ball was kicked, I got criticism.”

The likelihood remains that Burley will be replaced after Holland visit Hampden Park on 9 September. Scotland must take six points from their remaining two matches to have any hope of making the play-offs for next summer’s finals in South Africa. But even two victories may not be enough.

Burley’s decision to recall the 39-year-old David Weir was overshadowed by a call-up for Kilmarnock’s Kevin Kyle. The striker, who a year ago was preparing for a loan spell at Hartlepool United, won the last of his nine caps in April 2004. There is no place, surprisingly, for Garry O’Connor despite the forward being back in favour at Birmingham City and therefore one of the few Scots currently operating in England’s Premier League.

“Kevin might be a player you can use as a sub, changing things in the last 10 or 15 minutes,” said Burley. “You are looking to give your squad a different dimension and that’s why he is in. Kevin gives us that physical presence. He is strong, aggressive and can score goals. We don’t have that type of player in the squad.”

Burley said international football is a “big ask” for Weir then guaranteed the Rangers defender a start in the match against Macedonia at Hampden Park on Saturday week. Craig Gordon also returns to the squad after playing his first game for Sunderland for four months in the Carling Cup on Monday night. Burley confirmed that the Sunderland keeper will replace David Marshall.

“I’ve said since day one that Craig is the best keeper I’ve ever worked with,” the manager said. “He gives the back four confidence. He played against Norwich and he was outstanding.”

Scotland squad for the World Cup qualifiers against FYR Macedonia (5 September) and Holland (9 September) at Hampden Park: Gordon (Sunderland), N Alexander (Rangers), Marshall (Cardiff); Barr (Falkirk), McManus (Celtic), Berra (Wolves), G Caldwell (Celtic), S Caldwell (Burnley), Davidson (Preston), Hutton (Tottenham), McAllister (Bristol City), Whittaker (Rangers), Weir (Rangers); G Alexander (Burnley), Brown (Celtic), Commons (Derby), D Fletcher (Manchester United), Hartley (Bristol City), McFadden (Birmingham), Maloney (Celtic); Clarkson (Bristol City), S Fletcher (Burnley), Kyle (Kilmarnock), Miller (Rangers), Naismith (Rangers).

Kilmarnock 0-4 Rangers

Goals from David Weir, Kris Boyd, Kenny Miller and Steven Whittaker give Rangers a comfortable victory at Rugby Park.