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Referee was a Celts fan!
ANGRY Falkirk star Michael Higdon has lit the fuse under another powderkeg SPL weekend by branding ref Iain Brines a Celtic fan and Scotland’s whistlers a load of “bottle merchants”.
Referee was a Celts fan![>
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Gary Keown[>
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ANGRY Falkirk star Michael Higdon has lit the fuse under another powderkeg SPL weekend by branding ref Iain Brines a Celtic fan and Scotland’s whistlers a load of “bottle merchants”.[>
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The big striker blew a gasket over whistler Brines’ decision to allow Parkhead skipper Stephen McManus’ opener to stand in the Hoops’ 3-0 win on Saturday and admitted he wanted to hit him.[>
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TV pictures appeared to show the ball striking McManus’ arm before beating Bairns keeper Robert Olejnik.[>
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Higdon claims even McManus admitted that the goal shouldn’t have stood and can’t believe some of the decisions Celtic have been getting of late.[>
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Charlie Richmond denied Dundee United a stonewall penalty during their 1-1 Tannadice draw with the Bhoys eight days ago.[>
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Referee Brines was also at the centre of a Parkhead storm late last term for disallowing a title-turning Zander Diamond “goal” for a handball that never was, denying Aberdeen a last-ditch 1-1 draw.[>
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Higdon said: “He’s obviously a Celtic fan then, isn’t he?”[>
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He went on: “Obviously, the referees do bottle it because they keep making the same mistakes all the time.[>
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“Dundee United didn’t get that penalty against them [Celtic] last week.[>
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“I was marking McManus at the corner and it was just a plain handball.[>
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“I asked him after he’d done it and he said he’d handballed it in. It was so obvious.[>
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“I could have knocked the ref out, to be honest.[>
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“There wasn’t a lot in the game at that point and we’d had chances, but they seem to get the luck like that all the time.”[>
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Celts’ three SPL games so far this season have all been cloaked in some refereeing controversy.[>
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They were given what appeared to be a questionable penalty in the 1-0 win over St Mirren at Celtic Park and Dundee United were denied that sure-fire spot-kick at Tannadice last weekend.[>
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A dramatic SPL Saturday afternoon also saw Rangers fans spitting blood after a seemingly perfectly legal DaMarcus Beasley “winner” at Aberdeen was chalked off for offside.[>
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Higdon fired a volley of abuse at Brines after McManus’ goal and feels the fact he didn’t pick up a yellow card shows how bad the whistler really is.[>
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He said: “I could say a lot of things if I wanted to.[>
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“I’m surprised I never got booked because I kept having a go at him all the time.[>
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“I booted the ball away and he never booked me, so that shows how inconsistent that referee is.”[>
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Bairns manager John Hughes added: “I could see the first goal was a handball from the stand.”[>