The inconsistencies or incompetence of John Beaton form a lengthy list, teams from Celtic to Albion Rovers have suffered, especially when they go to Ibrox and find the Bellshill based referee in charge.
Faced with incredible evidence on social media that grows by the day the mainstream are struggling badly to put up a defence for Madden, the tradition of lumping two Glasgow clubs together on every issue just won’t wash.
Despite being called out as incompetent by Brendan Rodgers after Celtic lost to Hearts, despite wrongly sending off Cammy Kerr of Inverness Caley Thistle last Saturday the SFA went ahead with the appointment of Beaton for Sunday’s Glasgow Derby.
Taking charge of the 2020 and 2023 Scottish Cup Finals confirms the man from the Crown Bar as one of Crawford Allan’s favourite officials.
Six Derby matches have been played since Beaton denied Celtic a penalty at Ibrox in January 2023, Allan had three options for the remainder of this season before he seeks fresh opportunities, probably through the networking skills of Hugh Dallas.
If Beaton didn’t get Sunday’s match it would have been the post-split fixture at Celtic Park or a possible Scottish Cup Final. Ibrox on Sunday is definitely the lesser evil of the three options.
2021-22
John Beaton.
He is not incompetent.
You can’t say he’s incompetent.— Lint (@Zeshankenzo) April 5, 2024
Since Tuesday’s confirmation of the match officials social media has been heaving with examples of Beaton’s inconsistencies/incompetence, so much so that his classic Ibrox performance in December 2018, before a knees up at the Crown has almost been forgotten.
The clips above highlight the inconsistencies of Beaton, consustently in favour of one side.
On 27th of October 2021, with Steven Gerrard a few weeks away from walking away Aberdeen went into a 2-0 lead at Ibrox after 16 minutes with Scott Brown an unlikely scorer.
In the 20th minute a clear push by Alfredo Morelos helped pull a goal back but there was no sign of an equaliser as the game reached the 80th minute.
To the surprise of no-one Fashion Sakala fell over in the penalty box, Beaton did what he does and Tavpen rescued a point in the 81st minute.
Five weeks later with Giovanni van Bronckhorst now in charge things were very tight away to Hibs at Easter Road.
With five minutes left to play Ryan Kent performed his trademark dive into an opponents leg, that was all that Beaton required with Kemar Roofe replacing Tavernier to deliver the points from 12 yards out.
Towards the end of the season with the title slipping away, a post-split fixture at home to Aberdeen was perhaps the most blatant example of Beaton’s double standards, highlight by Red TV.
On one instance Lewis Ferguson is booked for having a free kick booted at him from close range, soon afterwards Kemar Roofe commits an identical offence without any card being issued.
Yesterday the SFA overturned a yellow card issued to Cammy Kerr by Beaton during the Partick Thistle v Inverness Caley Thistle Championship match on Saturday.
CLICK HERE for Lint Twitter account
CLICK HERE for Beaton and Tavernier off duty.