Bobby Madden concedes his worst performance as a referee but praises Pollok, Lisbon and VAR

Referee Bobby Madden has revealed his worst performance as a top Scottish football official came in Dundee.
Referee Bobby Madden (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)Referee Bobby Madden (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)
Referee Bobby Madden (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The whistler, in charge of Saturday’s big match between Hibs and Celtic, conducted a quickfire Q&A on social media earlier today while waiting on a flight.

Fielding questions from Instagram the 42-year-old, from East Kilbride admitted his ‘most honking’ performance as a ref came in a match between Dundee and St Johnstone a few years ago.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The last time the whistler was in charge of the Perth side and their Tayside rivals was in 2014 when he dished out five yellow cars at Dens Park in a 1-1 draw.

Madden also had praise for the surroundings at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz in Lisbon as well as Newlandsfield on the south side of Glasgow.

Answering a query about the most ‘beautiful dressing room’ he replied Benfica, with a picture of the changing facilities, and replied “ Pollok v Arthurlie was always a great game at Newlandsfield” when asked the best junior ground and game he’d been an official at.

Madden revealed a newspaper advert got him into refereeing and he had “been lucky enough to be in cup finals and Champions League games - when you start that's what you dream of.”

He added: “ I was an athlete when I was younger and had to stop due to injuries. I saw an advert in the paper and that was me.”

Madden also described VAR as “fantastic – it's developing and improving all the time” and said he’d like referees to be mic’d up in future for fans to hear the interaction and decision-making on the field.

A message from the Editor:Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.