Upholding Brown's red card is giving licence to 'simulation' like Lafferty's

STUART Bathgate is unarguably correct in stating that it is not dodgy refereeing decisions that have cost Celtic the SPL title. The failures of the team have been too numerous to mention. Yet I do sympathise with the Glasgow club in their "amazement'' at the SFA throwing out their appeal against Scott Brown's red in the Old Firm game. This amazed me also and I am a long time season ticket holder at Easter Road.

Gordon Smith has almost since taking up office campaigned against simulation and for a time was urging the most severe punishments for those caught. Kyle Lafferty's blatant, hands-out, theatrical dive after he brushed against Scott Brown was perhaps a textbook example of what the SFA Gordon Smith represents were apparently trying to stamp out. It followed Lafferty's earlier and similar dive against an Aberdeen player at Ibrox, which also got the red for the opponent he so clearly wanted.

By dismissing the Celtic appeal – and I think in this case it is correct to say any "fair-minded'' person would agree this was the perfect example of blatant simulation – the SFA have given the green light to this kind of behaviour, in direct contradiction of their earlier campaigns.

Not giving the red would probably not have won Celtic the game, let alone the title, but the dismissal of the appeal takes us into very difficult territory indeed and I wonder if the SFA have thought this through and not simply made a knee-jerk response in defence of their referee.

ALEXANDER McKAY

New Cut Rigg

Edinburgh

Sending off was poetic justice in light of Parkhead moans

STUART Bathgate presents a soundly philosophical view on the Celtic management's provocative complaints about perceived referee favouritism against them. Their approach to the SFA on this matter shortly before an Old Firm game was disgraceful, and it would be truly poetic justice if it made the match referee nervous and actually led to his "mistake".

As to any title "race", the perpetual two-horse SPL is a joke, but when it's reduced to a single horse it descends into farce. Rangers are far from consistent, let alone brilliant, and if they are so far ahead of the rest, the overall quality of play must be dire.

ROBERT DOW

Ormiston Road

Tranent

Please, just tell us about the game, not about So-and-so

THERE has been much discussion recently about the performance of football referees. I'd like to turn attention to the irritating performance of football commentators. The commentator's job should be to tell us what is happening on the pitch, who is on the ball, who is passing to whom, etc. That's all they have to do. Maybe, unlike the great Bill McLaren, that's too much for them to cope with.

Instead, we are treated, especially on Sky, to endless reams of premeditated trivia that just has to be delivered, no matter what is happening in the match. As a former journalist, I have seen them at work, with sheets and sheets of irrelevant rubbish in front of them – "So-and-so hasn't scored on this pitch since the 17th of October, 2009, although he has scored on three others since then"; or "the last time so-and-so faced Tottenham, back in December, his first baby had been born that very morning"; or "So-and-so is back on what was once a happy hunting ground for him: he put Villa ahead with a penalty in injury time in September, 2007" and so on. Meanwhile, the game is going on apace. Time and time again, they are taken by surprise in mid-trivia, having to break off because a goal is suddenly scored.

And why are commentators, by and large, so reluctant to admit that fouls have been committed? It's as if they accept that a degree of foul play is part and parcel of the game. We see a shirt being blatantly pulled – "Oh, there might have been a wee tug there." On the screen, we see solid contact, foot clattering into leg: "There might have been a touch, but so-and-so is making a meal of it." Bring back Archie Macpherson, I say.

And when radio commentators say: "Hibs are playing from right to left", I say: oh no, they're not, especially if you're in the dear old East Stand opposite the commentator!

ALASTAIR CLARK

Linn Mill

South Queensferry

It's high time commentators turned over a new leaf

AFTER a weekend of Six Nations rugby could I appeal to television commentators to avoid confusing listeners regarding 'turnovers' by sticking to a simple convention e.g. "Wales have turned over" becomes "they've gained the ball" or "England have been turned over" becomes "they've lost the ball".

ANTHONY GARRETT

Falkland

Fife

Manager's role overrated – it's all about the 11 on the pitch

I HAVE always felt that a football manager's position and influence has been hugely overrated. This has been born out recently by the furore over Jim Jefferies' appointment at Hearts.

For heaven's sake, it is the 11 players on the field that matter and I would venture that the squad themselves would know who should be playing each Saturday.

Most orchestras can play by themselves without the need of a conductor – and music is difficult! All a football manager seems to do during a game is look incredibly anxious and chew gum like a madman (sorry Sir Alex).

Let's get things into perspective and not be too hasty to look to the manager for a team's performance.

KEITH McLAREN

Polton Road

Loanhead