Willie Collum is a referee many Scottish football fans, players and managers love to hate.
But Tommy Wright has revealed the big reason the nation’s highest profile official will always have a special place in his affections – and St Johnstone’s history.
For a new book about referees and Scotland’s influence on the laws of the game, Wright was among those interviewed by author Alastair Blair.
The Northern Irishman admitted that “there are refs I do like more than others, usually because a decision has gone for us”.
And the best example he could think of was at Ibrox in 2014.
Collum let the game flow when many a ref would have blown for a foul by James Dunne on the edge of the Aberdeen box.
Seconds later Stevie May had equalised and Saints were on their way to the first-ever Scottish Cup final.
⏪ 2014 and a Semi-Final double from Stevie May double to see @StJohnstone in the Scottish Cup Final.#ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/dROgusrAAK
— Scottish Cup (@ScottishCup) May 7, 2021
“Willie Collum isn’t every fan’s cup of tea,” said Wright.
“But he made one of the best decisions ever when he didn’t penalise James Dunne for a high foot in his challenge that led to Stevie May’s equaliser in the 2014 semi-final against Aberdeen.
“There were a number of challenges from Saints players that could easily have led to a yellow card that day.
“But I think Willie realised that the chance of getting to the cup final was such a big deal for a club like St Johnstone that he took that into account and was more lenient than he might otherwise have been.
“That’s common-sense refereeing.”
Dick Campbell and Scottish refs
Blair, who has co-written St Johnstone books that are a must-read for Perth fans, including the recent ‘Great Saints’, weaves together historical facts about refereeing and Scottish football’s influence on it with anecdotes from famous men in the middle and well-known managers.
Dick Campbell is among them.
The Arbroath boss was straight to the point when asked about his general opinion of Scottish referees.
“……..well, I don’t think it’s difficult. For a start, their fitness levels in Scotland are a disgrace; they run a couple of laps and do a few stretches and think that’s good enough.
“They need to stop being controversial, keep up with the play and have a good rapport with managers and players.
“Get the decisions right, it’s not hard – we all know whether it’s a foul or not. OK, you might make the occasional mistake, we can all accept that, but just get it right. That’s all managers want.”
21/01/18 – Arbroath (Scottish Cup R4)
Dick Campbell and the Arbroath fans foaming at the mouth at a stone wall penalty not given. Fair play to referee Mike Roncone for thinking that telling Mr Campbell "Away" while waving him off would calm him down. pic.twitter.com/ua0qQglG9W
— 𝘼𝙣𝙙𝙮 𝘽𝙤𝙮 🏁 (@ShugsBoy) November 6, 2020
A whole book could be devoted to refereeing tales from the perspective of one of the game’s most colourful characters.
Choosing his top one was no easy task for Campbell.
“Probably my favourite story was with Kenny Hope,” he said. “It was when I was managing Brechin and we were playing Kilmarnock.
“John Ritchie, a real Brechin great, was still on the coaching staff after he retired, but for this game he was banned from the touchline and was in the stand, so we were using walkie-talkies.
“There was a blatant penalty that Kenny didn’t give, so I’m giving him pelters and I could hear John on the walkie-talkie trying to calm me down.
“The fact that he was sitting next to the chairman, David Will, who at the time was a vice-president at Fifa, and also Craig Brown, former Scotland manager, might have had something to do with it.
“But I was having none of it.
“I’m running up the touchline, shouting at Kenny, ‘you…….’. And John’s shouting in my ear.
“So I said to Kenny, ‘and that’s not all, here’s John Ritchie wants to talk to you’.”
- ‘Stop the Game: We’re going to arrest the goalkeeper!’ can be bought by following this link or searching ‘stop the match, Alastair Blair’.
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