Smith appalled at the 'tic's pre-match tactics

[J_RFC87 704]

WALTER SMITH has hit out at Celtic for the pressure they put referee Willie Collum under prior to today's Old Firm fixture.

Parkhead manager Neil Lennon said before the match that he wanted the derby debutant to 'have a strong game'.

That followed uproar across the city at the way the Parkhead team was awarded a penalty then had it correctly taken away again in last week's 2-1 win at Dundee United.

Smith was appalled at the way the spotlight was focused so much on Collum ahead of kick off.

And he praised the young whistler for his performance during Rangers' 3-1 victory this afternoon.

In contrast, Lennon was upset with the official's performance and amongst his complaints were the fact he felt Lee McCulloch should have been sent off in the first half.

Smith said: "I thought it was unfair pressure on the referee to start with and I felt he handled the game extremely well today.

"We'll always have arguments about one or two decisions but that's two Old Firm games out of three now where the referee has been placed under unfair pressure before the start.

"In all the time I've been involved in Rangers and Celtic games, if you sit down and look at it later it's the best team that wins.

"There's too much focus getting placed on referees at the present moment and Willie Collum was placed under unfair pressure today. There isn't any doubt about that.

"There comes a time, doesn't there, when we've got to stop and look at what is actually happening and we need to stop continuing to blame the officials.

"We all fall out with them but you've got to look a lot deeper than that. A lot of stuff in Old Firm games get exaggerated, from the referee's influence to everything else.

"In my own experience, it's the team which plays best that wins and today we had a spell where we looked the better side and won it."

http://www.rangers.co.uk/articles/20101024/collum-pressure-unfair_2254024_2195344

You tell 'em Sir Walt

[Amac9 2,060]

Walter Smith has more dignity in his left toe than Lennon will ever have!

[jmo21 15]

Rangers website

[stuartmccallsfall 4]

Glad he said this.

[cstamomusa 3,798]

[Ozblue 4,331]

That's the whole difference between us and them....Class! :21:

[Dado 334]

Sir Walter

I get the feeling this swansong season is going to be his masterpiece.

We look unbeatable just now, even in Europe.

[Goianegra 4,593]

Beautiful. The reason he never brought it up before was so he didn't put any extra pressure on Collum because he actually has some dignity. Also adds a bit of insult to injury. Loveit!

[Peat1873 8]

lennon is a sore sore bigot of a loser ! 1-0 and you fucked it up

[pwrfc 32]

Sir Walter

I get the feeling this swansong season is going to be his masterpiece.

We look unbeatable just now, even in Europe.

[debs1970 180]

See that Walter Smith.

I think he should be knighted

[GaryMc 2,394]

I will actually shed a tear at the end of the season when this man leaves Ibrox.

The words dignity, gentleman and legend sum Walter Smith up perfectly.

[Jocky Broon 207]

He may be a total fud but lets face it.Lennon knows Rangers are the best team in Scotland and one of his few hopes of beating us was to put pressure on the Referee particularly as it was a home game.Walter and his Team sent Lennon a big message today.

[.Williamson. 77,858]

It is embarrassing Lennon is allowed in football at all.

Him and his trackies.

[chris182 5,884]

Disgraceful unsporting tactics by the unwashed

[MisterC 11,804]

I love Walter Smith

[GeneralCartmanLee 313]

Walter puts the filthy wee bigot in his place once again.....

[Lando 249]

As always, Walter Smith has my utmost respect because he has the integrity and the dignity.

[delparlane 5,243]

I love how Lennon didn't bother to mention the stomp on Papac that could have broken his ankle. At least big Lee got the ball first!!! NL just proved what we all knew beforehand - when you lift up a a rock, you still have to dig under another before you unearth the likes of him.

[ElwoodBlues 40]

Big lee's challenge was superb, won the ball. What about samarse one at the end against naismith? straight red and also stokes 1st min challenge.

[Redmond7 468]

Walter as always showing his class, thats what makes him the best manager in the country.

From the tims, same old shite. I wonder how many headlines after they've lost to us over say the last 20 year would read 'Scum manager criticizes referee'? Pretty much all of them I'd suspect.

[delamonty 992]

Walter again, showing his class. And as the poster previous said... He wouldn't come out with this before the match because of respect for the Referee who had been placed in a difficult position already.

Well done Walter!

[deleteduser1 169]

Walter Smith was quite right. As usual.

[simon 1,717]

Our game will be a terrible place when Walter retires. A great man, a great manager.

[dummiesoot 15,427]

Walter clearly has class and dignity, sadly qualities lacking at Torbett Towers. However, WS may have dignity NOT to derdge every gripe we had with Collum, bearing in mind Sellik did put far too much emphasis on him, shocking from them.

Hooper must have committed about 6 or 7 fouls without even a warning.

Samaras is a dirtbag that could and should have walked on more than one occasion,

Stokes can't really add to all that has been said by all of you guys before.

Loovens rasing his hands on more than one occasion (to be fair if he got sent off they may have put a better defender on)

Ki, another cunt that got booked for his kick at Naisy, then raised his hands (yes Naisy should not have retaliated)

Mr Lennon open your fucking narrow slitty wee eyes ya fucking rodent!