Martin Coyle

@pieandbov I guarantee he will confirm he did blow the whistle! That’s one nightmare the SFA doesn’t want.

So on everything else that happened yesterday….. I absolutely understand the elation and emotion about the third goal and even the way it was scored. It was always going to spark bedlam and as a passionate football fan myself you can understand why some folk jumped on to the track as part of the celebrations, same as what happened at Motherwell during the week. It happens. What shouldn’t happen though, with the game not even finished, is that a good number of those fans then went much, much further. Invading all over the pitch, confronting and goading the Hearts players and making it impossible for the game to resume. I think we can all agree it of course made zero difference to the outcome of the game, the whistle would have been blown as soon as Hearts kicked off again but you cannot have fans deciding when a game is over. The Hearts players should not have been put in that position and it was a really sorry end to what was a tremendous game to finish an incredible title race. The SPFL will I am sure take a very dim view of what happened, particularly if Don Robertson confirms that he had not blown the full time whistle. More to come on this over the next few days I think.

@CraigGTelfer Half expecting Naysmith to change his mind when he sees what he’s inheriting…

You don’t appreciate how good things are until they’re well and truly in the rearview mirror but this is as good as it’s ever been to follow Stenhousemuir FC. This team have made me so happy. This is one of the best days of my life. See you in the Championship! 🤝

@TEnglishSport Pretty sure they already have the ability to impose sanctions for disorder. Never going to happen all the same..

SFA needs to show a scintilla of responsibility and leadership and introduce proper sanctions for pitch invasions from next season - stand closure, closed doors games, points deduction, forfeiture of a game. This stuff has to stop. It’s getting worse

@chris_sutton73 Tell that to Slavia Prague…!

😂😂😂😂😂

@TheStingisBack Not sure it’s possible for anyone to have more fun than Roger Moore! In any context really.

Pierce Brosnan (73 today) may not be everyone’s favourite Bond, but he might be the one who had the most fun; fully embracing the playful, debonair spirit of 007. Brosnan’s advice to the next Bond: “enjoy the role.” I hope they do.

@pieandbov Scottish referees just can’t handle the psychological pressure of refereeing Celtic and Rangers. Understandably so to an extent. Leads to soft decisions at crucial moments.

Feel so gutted for Hearts, gave it absolutely everything this season and showed massive balls in the run in despite so many things going against them. That spirit was evident again today, so very unlucky in the end. Still an absolutely incredible season and plenty to build on for the next campaign, not to mention Champions League football in Gorgie.

@GrahamSpiers The little team that could.

In context, this is some achievement by Martin O’Neill. He has hauled Celtic out of an utter shambles of a season to land probably his greatest ever triumph with the club.

@paullewismoney @JoJoKras @Moneybox @BBCRadio4 I’ve often wondered if Sid ever actually bought shares or if they were just swallowed up by big institutions.

Remember the Tell Sid campaign to buy British Gas shares? 40 years on it's back, well sort of, with Savvy Squirrel encouraging us all to move our cash into shares. But is it a good idea? with @JoJoKras and Ylva Baeckström from King's Business School @Moneybox noon @BBCRadio4

@DPJHodges Trust me, the SFA are way more scared of the Old Firm than they are of the whole world.

To the Scottish FA. The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching, the whole world is watching…

@chris_sutton73 Penalty to Hearts.

It doesn’t get any better than this. The country’s two best teams going toe toe… get your predictions in⚽️👍

@aboutceltic bbc.co.uk/sport/football…

It’s a shame that it has come to this. An onslaught from Scotland & beyond because the Hearts fairytale was damaged with an obvious handball. I wouldn’t imagine he got flowers & chocolates through the post from failing to give Maeda a penalty? 🤔💭

@Mickkennedy1904 It’s not cheating. But Scottish referees have always struggled to deal with the psychological pressure of handling old firm games. Leads to soft decisions like last night.

I understand fans are emotional, I also understand football and refereeing decisions are very subjective at times. But to suggest a referee would dedicate their life to their profession, to then reach elite level then cheat. CRAZY

@MattMcGlone9 It’s all part of the conspiracy.

This clear hand ball by Joe Jordan which incredibly got Scotland a mega important penalty was warmed to & accepted by those in press & media around the country & accepted as fine & okay. Where were the cries of “Cheats”, “Unacceptable” “disgusting”? Narrative didn’t fit then 🤡

@TEnglishSport Scottish referees can’t handle the psychological pressure of refereeing Celtic and Rangers games. They constantly get bullied into giving soft decisions at critical moments. It’s baked into the fabric of our game.

For balance, Celtic might have had a penalty for a foul on Maeda - and Motherwell might have had one, too. Recently, the Kyziridis penalty not given vs Motherwell, the Newell handball not given vs Celtic etc etc. Bin VAR, yes, but you’d still have officials making the same errors

@pieandbov Celtic get a soft penalty in the fifth minute of injury time on the back of inconclusive VAR evidence. No one saw that coming.

The morning after the night before. Firstly, it’s 2026, let’s stop using still images to try and confirm anything that happens on a football pitch. Video brings context. Secondly, and related to point one, for fucks sake use some common sense. An image showing two balls and an English Premier League badge on the Motherwell shirt is actually being circulated by some people as “proof” of what happened 😂 Thirdly, unless you are genuinely blind, I think we can all agree on one point now. The ball absolutely DOES hit his hand, the evidence of that in slow motion and zoomed in, is absolutely clear. Fourth, the distance on the ball is because Nicholson does indeed head it, but he heads it with his hand between his head and the ball. Again that is absolutely clear when you watch it zoomed in and in slow mo, IMO. So, and this is only my opinion of course, the only debate to be had is about whether the hand is in an unnatural position or if his hand has ended up there because of contact from Trusty. For me, whilst his arm isn’t making his silhouette bigger, you can’t really say it being on his forehead is a natural position 🤷‍♂️ Whether a nudge by Trusty pushed his arm up there is I suppose up for some debate but that’s pretty subjective, again IMO, and could be argued either way. So, despite the initial furore, by me included, I genuinely can see why this has been given. In terms of “the worst VAR decision of all time”it’s not even close to being as bad as either of the penalties Hearts didn’t get just three days ago at the same ground. Most neutrals, me included, want Hearts to win the league, and that incident last night was massively disappointing, but I think we all need to calm down a bit. What it has shown though, is that we desperately need more and better camera angles if we are stuck with VAR, and we also need much clearer and consistent decisions on handball cos we are making an absolute arse of dealing with it up here. Some refs give what others don’t, and it’s incredibly frustrating (again see Fir Park on Sat night). That’s my 2p worth anyway, all I know for sure is it’s a very good time to be a football forum owner 🤪

@chris_sutton73 Rubbish. The angle he saw was at best inconclusive. But as always, the psychological pressure to chuck Celtic a soft penalty was too much for our referees. Compare that to Steven McLean bottling it to give Hearts a penalty last week.

Now the dust has settled.. The reaction from many high profile people is way over the top. John Beaton was advised to go to the monitor and saw that the ball hit the arm in an unnatural position Bottom line is people would hate to see Celtic win the title again and that is all.

@StAnalysis Good luck with that…

I never, ever, want to read a Celtic fan ever claim they get nothing from referees on this site ever again Absolutely 0 other clubs in the country get given that as a penalty If they end up taking the title this season its because the authorities have just handed them it Wild

@HLTCO You don’t understand Scottish football at all.

I’m puzzled by why only one angle of it was shown and why the referee has so quickly given that after what looks like a single viewing of the incident. It may well have hit his hand but it feels like a quick turnaround for a decision of that magnitude.

@chris_sutton73 It’s a header.

For all the people moaning about VAR that’s what it is there for…

@pieandbov It’s the sheer predictability of it that’s depressing.

A suitably mental end to the night. Certainly Nicholsons hand is up there, why I don’t know. Beaton seemed very sure it was a penalty, didn’t spend too long looking at it, so I guess the slow mo will bear that out?