"Shocker"; Chris Sutton and Michael Stewart left astonished by Bobby Madden Celtic refereeing

By David Walton

April 17, 2022

Chris Sutton and Michael Stewart both tore into Bobby Madden during Celtic’s Scottish Cup loss to Rangers at Hampden this afternoon.

Madden left Celtic supporters and players furious during the clash as he allowed the Ibrox men to get away with several nasty challenges that should’ve resulted in second yellow cards.

And both Sutton and Stewart didn’t hold back with the former in particular making a note of Madden’s refereeing standard throughout the contest. Chris was up first as he commented on John Lundstram getting away with a booking midway through the second half. Reacting to that particular incident on Premier Sports 1 [17/04, 15:19], Sutton said: “Oh dear Bobby. He’s just embarrassing himself now.” He then put out the following tweet post-match:

Stewart was next before extra-time as he stated on Premier: “Bobby Madden’s had an absolute shocker. Some of the decisions he’s made today have been ridiculous.”

In the end, Celtic would lose out 2-1 in extra time despite being in the ascendancy midway through the second half thanks to Greg Taylor.

The result leaves Celtic with their sole focus now being on wrapping up the Scottish Premiership title.

Bobby Madden let Rangers away with plenty at Hampden

Firstly, we’re not the kind to lay every defeat we have at the door of a referee. We didn’t throw away a 1-0 lead today because Madden didn’t send off any of our rivals. It also wasn’t Madden who made sure our players looked shattered in extra time.

However, something about his performance this afternoon just didn’t feel right. It felt as though about 3 of Lundstram’s fouls were yellow card offences alone. Madden also blatantly decided not to card him after he blocked Joe Hart from kicking the ball out early in the second half too.

Celtic are also quite right to wonder where on earth the player protection was this afternoon. No, not because of the result, but because we were seeing so many of our top starts getting scythed down without any repercussions.

It felt at times as though Madden was allowing Rangers away with it because it was a derby match. He wasn’t actually following the IFAB rules of the game. Sure, different referees have different styles, but you can’t simply flat out refuse to book players for cautionable offences.

In the end, somehow Rangers kept 11 men on the park. It says a lot about Ange Postecoglou that he went up and immediately shook his hand post-match. He also didn’t resort to any accusatory finger-pointing after the game either.

But it also says a lot that Sutton and Stewart both pointed out his display this afternoon. It was abysmal, and unfortunately it was to our own detriment.

In other news, Giorgos Giakoumakis isn’t the only Celtic player who was badly missed today