Five out of top six clubs advocate fair play. Refs not polled

Yesterday, at Ibrox, Aberdeen's players fought strongly for their first victory at that ground. At 1pm today, Hibernian will host Celtic, fully intending to fight tooth and nail to undermine our title ambitions at least as severely as they did to Rangers with a 1-1 draw at Easter Road.

Move forward seven days and Hearts, who in Csaba Laszlo have a strong candidate for manager of the season, will try just as hard to ruin the end of our season while Craig Levein's Dundee United can be relied upon to strive to make life at least as difficult for R-word as they did for Celtic in a nerve-wracking encounter at Celtic Park.

It should be no other way. The Aberdeen players, along with Hibs, Hearts and Dundee Utd – and, of course, Celtic – still recognise some basics of sporting integrity; still maintain pride in their performances and in their clubs.

How strange it is that the club most fêted (or perhaps that should be foetid) by the media and by the Scottish football establishment should have such scant regard for the sporting ethos.

Those whose claim to know is based on receiving wage packets for writing such tripe will tell you that Walters Smith is a beacon of integrity. Nevertheless, his teams have been remarkable for a devil-may-care attitude to ethics, epitomised by his faith in Ally McCoist, one of the most cynical and unrepentant cheats the Scottish game has known.

Then came Kyle Lafferty. A typical Smith signing in that he has been as abysmal a performer as he was expensive, Lafferty first fouled, then brazenly cheated to have his fellow professional Charlie Mulgrew sent off, to the tumultuous roars of approval from the Ibrox horde. It was, to date, his most significant contribution to Scottish football and indicative of the type of character who grows up in the Ibrox tradition.

Smith's promise to “have a word” was, some might suspect, more in hope of legitimising his claim that Madjid Bougherra's studs making contact with the Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield could not possibly warrant a red card.

Special attention is also due to the referee. Stuart Dougal, fresh from claiming not to have seen an incident between Scott McDonald and Lee Wilkie, despite having taunted Wilkie as he lay on the ground, apparently invites us to believe that he thought Kyle Lafferty had been violently assaulted.

But there is a flaw in the story – as photographs suggest. While Lafferty lay motionless, on the ground, he was simulating the symptoms of someone who had suffered a severe head injury. Curiously, Dougal was happy to deal with the mêlée without summoning the medical assistance that such health risks routinely require.

Not so when Langfield was injured, at which point the player was quite rightly given attention.

So might Mr Dougal be asked why, if he truly believed that Lafferty had been butted, he was happy to stand over the player doling out his unique interpretation of justice?

Over the next eight days, Celtic will neither ask nor give quarter to any team but rather simply ask for fair contests officiated in a professional and impartial manner. All of our players can be expected to conduct themselves better than to besmirch the hoops by “doing a Lafferty”.

Individual allegiances aside, we can confidently expect the other clubs to be impartial, meaning that our players must take victory without favours or underhand tactics. Anyone who cares for fairness in sport will be willing us on.





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