Describing Calum Butcher’s challenge on David Turnbull as ‘naughty’ is probably me being conservative.
His track record isn’t great in general and this latest incident comes on the back of a sending off against Aberdeen.
It’ll catch up with him in terms of his career because he’ll miss out on appearances, bonuses and when it comes to his next contract or next club, managers will have it in their mind that they maybe can’t rely on him to keep his discipline.
For me, it was an easy tackle for him to try and look like a hard man.
It was really poor.
Fellow pros know.
🗣️"That has got to be a red card."
🗣️"That is a leg-breaker, it's horrible."Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has his say after Calum Butcher's challenge on Celtic's David Turnbull👇 pic.twitter.com/BQgCNgIo6v
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 6, 2021
He’s not done himself any favours, his team-mates or his manager.
The biggest thing for Tam Courts will be not being able to use a player of Butcher’s experience at a stage in the season when results have dried up a bit.
Tam has got a lot of credit in the bank.
People like me thought United might struggle this year but they’ve already got enough points in the bag to be pretty sure of not being dragged into the relegation battle.
He’ll be working hard to get the team back to winning ways.
Calum Butcher won’t be at the heart of those plans if he gets another ban, though.
Tony Watt was superb against United the other week.
Not just his goal. We all know he’s got the quality to produce finishes like that.
What is even more impressive is the work-rate and commitment he is showing for Motherwell week in, week out.
That’s the side of the game he’s not as well known for.
"A thing of beauty."
Measured finish from Tony Watt gives Motherwell the early lead ⚽️
Motherwell 1-0 Dundee Utd
📺 Watch live on Sky Sports Football pic.twitter.com/GfGlP0aG9l
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 30, 2021
To see him throwing himself into injury-time tackles in the pouring rain when his team is down to 10 men and protecting a one-goal lead says a lot about Tony these days and what he brings to a team.
I would imagine Steve Clarke is paying attention.
There won’t be a Scotland squad named for a few months but if there was one next week, I’d have Tony in as my third-choice striker behind Lyndon Dykes and Che Adams.
He’s above Kevin Nisbet now for me.
Keep this form going through to March and he’ll be a hard man to ignore for the World Cup play–offs.
Paul Sheerin is held in very high regard at Arbroath for the success he had here as a manager.
I feared the worst when I heard the result for Falkirk against Queen’s Park last weekend and unfortunately Paul has lost his job.
It’s not for me to give them advice about who should be the next boss but it’s an appointment they can’t afford to get wrong.
Being a so called ‘big club’ guarantees you nothing in the lower leagues, where there are many part-time sides punching above their weight.
No wonder Kevin Thomson called the late postponement of their game at Elgin a “shambles”.
A storm was battering the country and all the games should have been called off by the middle of the day.
The SPFL needs to think of the bigger picture at times like this and show some common sense.
Making a part-time team travel up and down the A9 in a white-out certainly wasn’t that.
