Rarely do Old Firm games pass without incident. And yesterday’s was no different.
While the talking point should be that Rangers raced out of the blocks to dominate Celtic, with an inexperienced 19 year old dictating the play, and Sone Aluko giving the Celtic defence nightmares.
No, instead the main talking points are Neil Lennon being “sent off”, him apparently not being allowed to sit in the main stand at Ibrox (untrue), and Cha’s sending off being unjust as he wasn’t the last man.
Lennon is quoted as claiming at the media conference following the match that Rangers’ security people advised him not to sit in the stand, for his own safety.
“We’re at Ibrox to win the title and I’m told by Rangers’ security it wouldn’t be safe for me to sit in the stand. That sums this country up.”
Rangers safety people denied this.
It has come to light in the last hour that this statement is untrue.
In fact, it was Celtic’s security who advised Lennon not to sit in the stand.
So, either Lennon has been misquoted by the Daily Record (and many others), or he is now a proven liar who can’t be trusted by his own security people to behave himself. Why else would he have been advised to this effect?
He’s sat in the stand on other occasions without as much as a cross word.
He made other allegations about the Referee and his assistants during the same rant.
Are we to believe him? Can he be trusted to be telling the truth?
Cha’s sending off was not for being the last man when he wasn’t. He was sent off for denying a goal scoring opportunity.
Now Lennon is inferring that Callum Murray is in some way biased against Celtic, despite the same Referee sending off 3 Rangers players in Old Firm fixtures last season.
Somehow missing from the paranoid debate about the SFA today just days after Lennon himself was given special treatment by SFA Compliance officer Vincent Lunny, were any incidents whereby the decision making favoured Celtic.
So, the incident whereby Scott Brown raked his studs down the thigh of Sone Aluko, then booted him for good measure, with no punishment is not to be talked about.
Nor is Kris Commons Olympic diver impression that won a free kick that led to Celtic’s second goal. How someone so fat can display such athleticism is remarkable.
It will be interesting to see if the newspapers “clarify” their view of the security advice to Lennon, or if they backtrack.
My money is on the sweeping brush to be used by all concerned.
Bill.
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