Incompetency not a conspiracy

I will be obliged to go through the same process all over again this evening on the programme, and on every other evening I am on the show from now until the end of the season.

The reason for that state of affairs will be the award of a fictitious penalty for Ross County against Celtic on Sunday.

The draw the penalty award created is neither here nor there so far as Celtic are concerned, but the ramifications of that decision will rumble on.

The referee's mistake, and that of his assistant referee, flicked a switch in Scott Brown's head and the Celtic captain couldn't calm down sufficiently well to avoid imploding and getting himself sent off for a reckless challenge before the game ended.

The consequence of his actions should be that Brown misses the Scottish Cup and league matches against Rangers through suspension.

But Celtic will exploit the disciplinary system that allows them to appeal the red card and Brown will play at Hampden in the Scottish Cup. Then he will be suspended and miss the game which follows at Ibrox.

It's a cynical old world. But there's worse.

Ross County got a penalty because their player, Alex Schalk, cheated and threw himself to the ground in a cynical manner.

But incompetence in a sense cheats the fans out of a fair result.

If the referee and his assistant arrive at a decision to award a penalty when absolutely no contact has taken place between Schalk and Celtic's Eric Sviatchenko then my opinion is that neither man is up to the job of officiating at a level of the game where liveliehoods are affected.

Ross County profit through the gaining of a point which helps their fight to avoid relegation at the expense of other clubs. But those other clubs are even bigger victims than Celtic because their very existence in the Premiership has been materially affected by bad judgement.

Fans get upset because there is no accountability and the referees and their assistants who make decisions which affect liveliehoods go on making a tidy sum in additional income to the pay packets they pick up in their everyday jobs.

They're quids in. The people they affect could be seriously out of pocket because match officials aren't doing their jobs properly.

What happens now, in my experience, is that the SFA circle the wagons. The people responsible for running the referee's department go to ground and take a vow of silence which would impress a Tibetan monk.

And people like me are left to deny this is part of an organised conspiracy to undermine one club in particular.

I genuinely don't believe the referee in Dingwall was part of any conspiracy. I genuinely believe he and his assistant aren't very good at their job.

Now for the Celtic captain.

Brown's ill-judged moment of retaliatory action is conduct unbecoming a man who has the captain's armband around his arm.

There is no excuse available to him.

Bad referees have been with us since the game began and will be after all of us are long gone. What will always be with us? Death, taxes and hopeless referees.

Brown's defenders will say he was only exhibiting passion for the cause. I will reply by saying he was only demonstrating stupidity and the inability to keep control of his temper long enough to get off the park and inside the dressing room.

In that regard he is no different from Neil Lennon and Jim Duffy, the managers who should have known better than to create a disturbance on the trackside at Easter Road a couple of weeks ago.

And no different from the St. Johnstone pair, Danny Swanson and Richar Foster, who were sent off after fighting with each other after the half-time whistle had blown in their game with Hamilton Accies.

If you can't keep your emotions in check then that's your fault.

If you're the Celtic captain and you know a red card will put you out of important games then wait and take your pent up frustration out on the away dressing room door before damaging the paintwork once you're inside that space created for the removal of steam.

That's what the player should have considered before he allowed himself the luxury of a brain storm.

I'm old school. I don't believe Billy McNeill would have lost control of himself like that. Or Danny McGrain or Kenny Dalglish or Roy Aitken.

They didn't satisfy their own angry feelings. They thought about the team first of all.

Brown was having a poor game before he was sent off. Maybe his stay of execution will be as good for Celtic as Pedro Caixinha has turned out to be.

I'll explain that last bit.

It was only two minutes ago, metaphorically speaking, that people were asking what was left for Rodgers to do at Celtic Park, having won the title without losing a match and made the whole business of Scottish football look easy.

Now Brendan has to contend with the aftermath of a captain who couldn't control himself and a Rangers manager who has brought Rangers' downward spiral under control.

It'll focus the mind and maybe even calm the Celtic fans who have dismissed Rangers as an irrelevance.

Brown needs to make the exploitation of a loophole worth his while and let his temporary reprieve be the catalyst for raising his game.

Jumping to conclusions is the most widespread form of exercise taken by supporters of all clubs and tonight on the programme we'll launch the start of a two week long programme of calisthenics which will reach Olympian heights.

By the end of it we'll know if Celtic are still going for domestic invincibility and a treble, or if Caixinha has won himself the kind of immortality Wim Jansen has enjoyed since stopping Rangers from winning Ten in a Row nearly twenty years ago.

But the main topic of conversation to begin with will be the honesty of match officials.

I do not buy into corruption on an organised basis. Never have done. Never will.

But I do buy into some match officials being promoted beyond their capabilities and I do believe Scottish football is going through a phase where our officials are a laughing stock.

But thanks to all of them for making sure that we won't weary on Superscoreboard from tonight until the end of the season.

• Hugh Keevins