Clancy rescues Clement with stoppage time ‘trick’

With his team on the ropes against Motherwell yesterday Phil Clement was relived to see just two minutes stoppage time played by Kevin Clancy.

It was strange but not strange to see so little added time, especially after seven minutes were added during the first half.

Clancy is one of the SFA’s most trusted officials, after two complaints from Ibrox were made public he seemed to drop out of the spotlight last season.

Previously he was on the rota for the Glasgow Derby but missed out on that fixture last season, his previous match involving Phil Clement was on December 9 when Dundee visited Ibrox, his only Celtic match of 2024 was the 3-0 home win against Hearts on May 4.

Yesterday’s appointment suggests that Clancy is back in favour, with the home team on top at Hampden seven minutes were added on at the end of the first half with Clement’s side leading 2-1 and looking like adding to the scoreline.

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell said:

I just felt there was more than two minutes to be played in that game. It was a real surprise for myself, and I think most of you guys as well. Whether that makes a difference in the game, I don’t know. But it certainly sometimes seems that when you’re looking for a bit more added time, it’s not there.

I think that possibly becomes a wee bit disrespectful to Rangers [to say they were creaking]. Whether it was the players that were creaking, or they looked nervous or whatever, I felt at that point we were just on the ascendancy.

I just felt as if we were carrying a threat. I just felt as if we had a bit of dominance in the game. You’re always looking for that five-minute spell, ten-minute spell, whatever it be, where you carry a threat.

I felt that was slap-bang in the middle of a spell. We were all right and we were good. As I say, their goalkeeper looked probably more nervous at that point than ours. So, yeah, disappointed that it doesn’t continue for at least maybe another minute. Possibly two.

The second half was a different story. Robin Propper was booked in the 53rd minute with Ridvan Yilmaz joining him in the 89th, bookings take the best part of a minute to administer with both Motherwel players grounded but not requiring treatment.

There were four sets of substitutions during the second half, in the 56/57th minute then in the 73, 77 and 82nd minutes to break the game up.

For the last 20 minutes Motherwell had the upper hand, they looked the most likely to score with the loyal bears rapidly getting out of Hampden, by the 90th minute there was barely 10,000 fans left inside Hampden.

Kettlewell expected more stoppage time, generally a minimum of four minutes would be played but Clancy indicated for two, cutting the opportunity for a Motherwell equaliser.