John Beaton put himself in the spotlight again as he took charge of the visit to Ibrox of Hearts.
Refereeing one Glasgow Derby, the 2-2 draw in January, last season as well as the Scottish Cup Final in June he is clearly one of the most trusted referees on Crawford Allan’s rota.
Amazingly, yesterday was the fourth time running that a match between Hearts and the Ibrox was refereed by Beaton. Getting back-to-back fixtures is unfortunate, or a coincidence, four on the bounce is clearly police from the barely heard Allan, Head of Refereeing at the SFA.
From a Scottish Cup tie against Albion Rovers in March 2014 Beaton’s actions have been very predictable, it doesn’t need to be a marginal call, whatever the circumstances he will find in favour of the club founded by Charles Green in 2012.
In January’s Glasgow Derby there were two decisions to be made. Fashion Sakala was rewarded with a penalty for diving in to Carl Starfelt, Conor Goldson got off with raising two hands to block a netbound shot from Starfelt. Nodding in agreement in the VAR room was Willie Collum, Beaton’s buddy from the Lanarkshire Refereeing Association.
Goldson has benefited more than most from Beaton’s interpretation of the Laws of the Game, however he uses his arms and hands to control the ball there will be an explanation ‘leaked’ to Sportscene and other media messengers.
As well as the Albion Rovers match in 2014 Beaton took charge of Celtic’s defeat at Ibrox in December 2018 when Alfredo Morelos was given licence to lash out at anything in green and white.
Scott Brown, Tony Ralston and Ryan Christie were all victims, not even a yellow card was issued with Beaton greeted as a returning hero that night when he dropped in on his mates in the Crown Bar in Bellshill.
A few days later Peter Lawwell was shamed into issuing a statement, after a reminder about the SFA correspondence from the summer of 2012 the Celtic SLO quietly dropped his concerns with Beaton refereeing two Scottish Cup Finals since Morelos was given the freedom of Ibrox to boot lumps out of opponents.
CLICK HERE for Beaton’s 19 SPFL Premiership matches, three of which involved the same two clubs playing each other.
John Beaton the ref here as well https://t.co/uxDXUmhQ8K
— Terry O’Neill (@terryoneill67) October 30, 2023
👍 https://t.co/oTJ81QRkEg pic.twitter.com/JJ22gmqvg8
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) October 29, 2023
John Beaton.
👍 https://t.co/SVrr50QDYI pic.twitter.com/Ck0IrCQQvG— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) October 29, 2023
The 3 Rangers v Aberdeen games this season.
4 incidents.
1st game John Beaton is ref.
Dons r up 2-0.
Beaton gives a free kick that wasn’t, (wasn’t highlighted or shown, only footage was free kick bring taken).
Morelos heads in from an offside position.2-1. pic.twitter.com/LAviVXq8P0
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) March 8, 2022
John Beaton is VERY ‘inconsistent’, isn’t he? pic.twitter.com/3S4tV0a4fL
— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) May 1, 2022
All in the same game Rangers got a penalty for shirt pulling in the last 10 minutes to level the game.
John Beaton was the ref. pic.twitter.com/WLL6TCLy2n— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) October 30, 2023
