Gordon Duncan loses the plot as he defends shameful John Beaton

Gordon Duncan found himself in a very conflicted place on Saturday presenting Super Scoreboard.

Among his growing portfolio is the VAR Review with Willie Collum.

Sky Sports hands over 25 minutes a month for Duncan and Collum to give off the impression of transparency as they selectively review the howlers delivered by SFA referees

Duncan is a boyhood Motherwell fan. There is no doubt over that.

As his career has progressed he knows the boxes to tick.

These days he splits his time between Radio Clyde, Sky Sports and the SFA.

Coming from Lanarkshire he knows the background of John Beaton, the great taboos that legacy media outlets will never go near.

Willie Collum’s job as an RE teacher was fair game in the media. None of them will mention the Crown Bar in Bellshill in the same sentence as Beaton.

For reasons that no-one will explain, on Saturday Beaton was refereeing Celtic for the second time within a fortnight. He has refereed five SPFL Premiership matches in 2026, three involving Celtic.

DUNCAN STEERS WELL CLEAR OF BEATON’S BACKGROUND

Beaton’s reaction to being forced to award Celtic a penalty at Ibrox on March 1 quickly went viral. He was seething. Forced way out of his comfort zone.

When he was a Rangers daft schoolboy he never thought of that scenario.

Awarding Celtic an 88th minute penalty at Ibrox. The chance to wipe out the most dominant 45 minutes in O** F*** history which included the greatest goal of all time.

Twisting the knife it took Reo Hatate three efforts to get the ball over the line.

Beaton took the baggage of that incident into yesterday’s match. Three Celtic players were booked in the first 63 minutes before the major flashpoint.

Super Scoreboard haven’t put the episode on You Tube but you can hear Saturday’s episode above. Kevin calls up at 38 minutes 38 seconds to kick it all off. Duncan gets very sensitive, upset and agitated.

According to Hugh Keevins Celtic fans have an obsession with John Beaton.

Duncan, Keevins, Gordon Dalziel and Cammy Bell all know the source of that.

Twelve years of decisions going in a certain direction. Showcased by the Alfredo Morelos Show at Ibrox in December 2018. Followed by that night in the Crown Bar.

There were problems on the phone lines yesterday.

One caller did get through to start grilling Keevins about the Beaton obsession. They weren’t mentioned but most listeners know that he was hinting at the Crown Bar images. 49 minutes 40 seconds

Duncan sprung into deflection mode straight away. And with that call from Mark the show came to an end.

DEFLECT AND DENY THE ISSUES

Rather than let callers question the pundits directly Duncan jumps in to rephrase the question more comfortably. Giving someone of Keevins’ vintage more time to gather excuses.

The question was directed away from the source of the issues with Beaton.

The caller questioned Keevins to explain himself. Bell jumped in with the claim that Beaton was making a decision with players in his line of vision.

Duncan was happy to go along with that despite knowing that the man from the Crown Bar had a clear, unobstructed view of Emmanual Longelo with two arms around Maeda.

Keevins repeated his obsession claim, refusing to answer the question, sticking with the last thought in his head.

While Collum continues to appoint his mate from the Lanarkshire Referee Association these issues will continue.