Votes counted – Red three, Yellow four on Reo’s Rugby Park tackle

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The Celtic Star

·16 November 2024

Votes counted – Red three, Yellow four on Reo’s Rugby Park tackle

Surprise, surprise, the SFA’s Key Match Incident report panel for last weekend has adjudged Reo Hatate’s challenge on Kilmarnock’s Liam Donnelly as serious foul play…

Reo Hatate’s reckless challenge earned him a yellow card. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star

Celtic unconvincingly defeated Kilmarnock 2-0 at Rugby Park last Sunday with goals from Callum McGregor and Nicolas Kuhn sealing an important three points for Brendan Rodgers’ side who enter international break number three of the season unbeaten domestically.

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Despite there being three key talking points in the match, one incident was glaringly omitted from the KMI report yesterday. There was no mention of Liam Donnelly’s attempt to deliberately elbow Celtic shotstopper Kasper Schmeichel.

Meanwhile, unlike Donnelly’s malicious attempt on Kasper, Joe Wright’s elbow on Adam Idah in the opening minutes of the match was discussed in the SFA’s findings for last weekend’s Premiership KMI.

The panel came to a unanimous conclusion that a yellow for Kilmarnock’s towering defender was the correct outcome. They said, “the onfield decision was unanimously supported [5:0].”

Arne Engels unhappy at Nick Walsh. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star.

Experienced onfield referee Nick Walsh brandished a yellow card for Hoops playmaker Reo Hatate for a lunge on Liam Donnelly in the second half. This was backed up by VAR official Don Robertson at Clydesdale House who felt a recommendation to the VAR monitor was not necessary.

However, the Key Match Incident report made up of five panellists [three independent panel members with established careers in Scottish football such as a former player, coach, or a member of the media, one representative from the Scottish FA, and one representative from the SPFL clubs]claimed that there was one VAR error last week in the Scottish Premiership. According to the review completed by KMI, Reo Hatate should have been sent off in Ayrshire.

Reo Hatate at Rugby Park. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star

In their reasoning it was outlined that, “the panel discussed this decision at length with the majority [3:2] deeming the onfield decision incorrect. The majority [3:2] believed that VAR should have intervened and recommended an OFR for a red card to be awarded as they believed that the challenge endangered the safety of the opponent. Two members of the panel highlighted that they don’t think the potential foul was clear and obvious enough for VAR to get involved and a caution sufficed.”

When you do the maths on this, three panel members reckoned it was a red, but two of their colleagues plus the match referee and the VAR believed it was a yellow card offence. That’s 4-3 in favour of Reo then who was perhaps fortunate to get the benefit of the doubt.

Reo Hatate with Brendan Rodgers at Rugby Park. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star.

Having established during the game that rough-house tactics from Kilmarnock were going to be tolerated perhaps Welsh and Robertson felt that getting one back from Celtic was going to be managed in a similar fashion, thus a yellow and not a red.

Who knows but it is perhaps about time that they could point to a decision going Celtic way as it’s been all too one sided so far this season from the MIBs and their pals. I’ll refer you to Sandman’s Definitive Reviews for the best analysis on this incident.

Celtic fans at Rugby Park. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star.

READ THIS…Sandman’s Definitive Ratings – Celtic at Salem’s Lot

Conor Spence

Matt Corr’s wonderful new books, Celtic in the Thirties, Volumes One & Two are both out now on Celtic Star Books and you can order a signed copies by clicking on the links below…