Alan Muir will referee Sunday’s Viaplay Cup tie between Kilmarnock and Celtic at Rugby Park.
The Aberdeen based official is best known for being the Additional Assistant referee to Steven McLean at the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Inverness Caley Thistle.
With Celtic leading 1-0 the hoops had a great chance to go 2-0 in front when a cross deep into the penalty box found Leigh Griffiths, the striker headed the ball cleanly towards goal with Josh Meekings raising his arm to prevent his side going 2-0 down.
Muir, like McLean and assistant referee Frank Muir, had a clear view of the incident but neither of the three opted to apply the Laws of the Game.
At that time Meekings would have been red carded with Celtic awarded a penalty to go 2-0 up against 10 men in a semi-final.
Muir had recovered his touch in the second half, agreeing with McLean that Craig Gordon should be sent off with 10 man Celtic going down to a 3-2 defeat, denying Ronny Deila the prospect of a cup final against Falkirk to complete a treble.
After a token statement from Celtic Peter Lawwell held a meeting with the SFA in which he was reminded of his role in the events of 2012 with nothing else heard about the incident.
A year later McLean was rewarded with the Scottish Cup Final, last season he returned to the rota for Glasgow derbies.
On Sunday Muir will again team up with Connor as Celtic set out in the defence of the Viaplay Cup in front of what is expected to be a half empty stadium thanks to Kilmarnock’s ticket policy.
Celtic’s 4,000 allocation was vastly oversubscribed for but sales among home fans faced with paying £25 or watching on television are said to be very light, the match isn’t on Kilmarnock Season Tickets.
Last season Celtic twice won comfortably at Rugby Park but Killie have opened the season impressively, topping their Viaplay Cup group then taking four points from their first two SPFL matches.
Former Celtic youths Robbie Deas and Stuart Findlay have quickly formed an impressive defensive partnership, keeping clean sheets in their opening SPFL matches.
Celtic are likely to be without Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate with the plastic pitch not the sort of surface to take any risks on.
Don ‘anything goes’ Robertson is on VAR duty, CLICK HERE for all of the weekend referee appointments.
1 Comment
by Captain Swing
Referee: Billy King (Larkhall)
Linesman 1: Graeme Graham (Falkirk)
Linesman 2: Forbes Presbyterian (Milngavie)
4th Official: Thomas Mason (Aboyne)
VAR: Kenneth Erskine (Stockwell)