With the stakes so high it was well anticipated that the SFA would put Beaton in charge of the Pittodrie fixture with the only consolation being that Andrew Dallas hasn’t been given the VAR gig.
There are many obvious conflicts of interest with match officials in Scotland, highlighted by the influence of the Lanarkshire Referee Association which promoted Collum, Beaton and Dallas who were brought up virtually on the doorstep of the two biggest clubs.
In his School Year book Beaton’s peers knew exactly what he was, when the Crown Bar is your preferred location after a Glasgow Derby no follow up questions are required.
Beaton took a 5-1 defeat on the chin, swallowed his pride and returned to Ibrox in December 2018 to turn in an incredible performance where Alfredo Morelos booted lumps out of Scott Brown, Tony Ralston and Ryan Christie without even seeing a yellow card.
As the Celtic striker raced into position he was hit by the double whammy of Ben Davies bundling him over, for insurance purposes Leon Balogun’s right foot swings into the back of Kyogo’s knee forcing the striker into a ‘shot’ that went wide of the post.
In charge of the Glasgow Derby at Ibrox in April the man from the Crown Bar in Bellshill had a bigger influence on the result than any of the home players.
No one is asking the officials to disclose the team they support publicly.
It’s absolutely bizarre to defend supporters of a team refereeing their teams games. No matter how fair the refs are, it isn’t seen to be fair.
The SFA didn’t give Beaton the Willie Collum treatment, he was put in charge of the April Glasgow Derby with several curious issues coming to the fore.
Slightly more subtly Beaton made a succession of ‘puzzling’ decisions on free kicks with the 23 awarded against Celtic, despite having 46% possession, more than any senior club in Scotland or England over the whole weekend.
“Like many other clubs, we will continue to press for the highest standards in relation to the VAR process in Scottish football.”