Time to blow the whistle on a crisis
On Superscoreboard on Saturday night I found myself being asked to discuss the validity of a penalty kick awarded to Aberdeen in a cup final against Celtic.
Not the Betfred Cup final from earlier this season. This was a query surrounding the Scottish Cup final in 1970.
Forty-nine years ago.
Luckily for the caller, I was as old as he was and had actually attended the match as a working reporter.
For the record, I thought the referee, R.H.(Bobby) Davidson was wrong to award a penalty on a dubious handball decision.
He also ignored two claims from Celtic for penalties and disallowed a goal from Bobby Lennox on a day that saw Aberdeen run out 3 – 1 winners.
But a retrospective debate on a decision taken before Brendan Rodgers or Steven Gerrard had even been born?
This is getting serious.
The caller's point was that, historically speaking, Celtic have been, and continue to be, victimised by referees.
This is notwithstanding the fact they have won the last seven domestic trophies on the bounce and have annexed the last seven league titles in succession.
They must be the most heavily decorated victims in the history of martyrdom.
But there is a serious message behind the sarcasm.
For what it's worth, I believe Andrew Dallas to be the most headstrong, abrasive and frequently inaccurate referee working in the SPFL today.
He got, to my way of thinking, two out of four penalty awards wrong during Rangers' otherwise straightforward demolition of an utterly hopeless St. Mirren at Ibrox on Saturday.
I accept it is eminently possible to get four penalties given to one side if they are involved against opposition so weak it is a one-sided mis-match.
I was there at Celtic Park for Superscoreboard when Celtic got three penalties while they humiliated Aberdeen 9 - 0 during Mark McGhee's time in charge of the Pittodrie side.
If you can get three then you can get four based on ninety minutes of un-interrupted domination.
But if the penalties come in bulk then they have to be checked for flaws, and the referee's judgement was unquestionably flawed at Ibrox. Likewise the criticism directed at him afterwards.
Dallas junior is maligned because he is the son of Dallas senior, Hugh, a pantomime villain for years in the eyes of the Celtic support.
Hugh once had the distinction of having his performance in an Old Firm match recorded on video and sent to a behavioural psychologist in London for analysis, which leads me to the point.
Celtic had a remarkable win over St. Johnstone on Sunday considering the sheer volume of players unavailable to Brendan Rodgers through injury and personal problems.
Not to mention the three injury victims who were then added to the list of walking wounded before the game was over.
Celtic will be doing very well to hold on to their six point lead at the top of the table unless reinforcements arrive on the horizon sometime soon.
But none of what happened at McDiarmid Park had anything to do with Rangers getting four penalties the day before, or the fact that Willie Collum was negligent when it came to awarding Celtic a couple of spot kicks in Perth.
It was a story of resilience and endeavour from Celtic and that should be the focus of attention from their supporters.
Celtic's gutsy win means Rangers daren't drop anything against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday night, otherwise the home team could move into second place.
That match, and Celtic's home game with Hibs, offer up a sequence of fixtures that signpost an incredible finish to the championship race.
But the referees had better be up to them at the same time.
This season's title could be decided on human error rather than human endeavour on the part of the players.,
The standard of refereeing was poor to begin with this season but it has now fallen away dramatically.
The meeting called by the SFA at Perth and attended by managers and referees was a showpiece which signified nothing.
Refereeing standards are now so low that the players could justify a strike in protest over what they are having to deal with, such as the match officials once did when they felt they were being unjustifiably pilloried.
I am not accepting conspiracy theories, agendas or any of the other baloney trotted out at times like this, but I am citing poor judgement unbecoming top grade referees.
The hope remains that the biggest domestic prize of all is not decided by an inability on the part of the match officials to do their jobs properly.
Incidentally, as a footnote, could I point out that I was born in 1949.
Any penalty kicks awarded under controversial circumstances before that year will need to be discussed with the help of a medium at Superscoreboard's first ever seance