The referee Bob Valentine

[Bluebearjim]

To be fair some of the ones in England are as bad - but get well paid for it. Sam Allerdyce speaks of one in the Championship who was useless, however him and the other managers conspired to give him top marks and get promoted to the Premier.
How do you think next OF game would go if say Martin Atkinson was the ref.

 

[biodoc]

I remember a follow follow poll in the fanzine that had valentine as best and worst referee.

 

[JRei8790]

The present batch are worse, much, much worse.

Still remember an FF poll at the start of season 1989/90 and it asked for the save of the season?

And the answer was Bob Valentine for saving the filth's!, the previous term.

No they are not! Valentine is by far and away the biggest cheating ref I've ever witnessed. Not even close.

 

[ao2]

I remember a follow follow poll in the fanzine that had valentine as best and worst referee.

I don't know any Bear from that era who'd have voted him the best!

 

[dh1963]

I don't know any Bear from that era who'd have voted him the best!

Maybe it was just a vote between him and Waddell!

 

[ao2]

Maybe it was just a vote between him and Waddell!

It was a dead heat then for the worst!!!

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

No they are not! Valentine is by far and away the biggest cheating ref I've ever witnessed. Not even close.

Whilst, we might disagree on who is the baddestistsit.

The main, salient point remains.

Rangers have been the victims of some of the most criminal refereeing decisions that you will ever see.

Yet, according to filth propaganda that has never been challenged, we are the winners when it comes to bent referees.

We have only ourselves to blame.

 

[TCWNS1872]

2nd worst ever with only George Smith ahead of him in the incompetence stakes!

Too true bud. George Smith was a nuclear. Forgot to mention him. I'm too young to remember the '80 cup final properly but my old man filled me in about how bad a performance it was.

For younger bears, Ian Brines was another utter incompetent who was hell bent on marginalising Rangers when it came to contentious decisions. But I would say Valentine, Smith and Waddell have to be up there with some of the worst referees to have had relatively long careers. Willie Young and Ian Brines were next in the timeline when it came to being blasé about favouring anyone but Rangers in the longevity stakes. There have been others since who were incompetent beyond belief but until fairly recently, you couldn't say with any real degree of certainty that they were bordering on barefaced cheating. That changed last season with Kevin Clancy imo. His hardon for us was as blatant as you will ever see to such an extent that I'm sure he received a word in his shell before the last OF game where he looked to slightly favour us with the tight calls. The statistics I'm sure, would point to him refereeing Rangers to a different standard.

Don't let that through you off the scent though. Refs can still be biased and incompetent at the same time.

 

[Walrus]

My grandfather who wasn't a football man worked beside George Smith in Edinburgh told us he was a staunch RD who hated us and had a huge chip on his shoulder

 

[TCWNS1872]

Don't see any mention of big Rowbotham.

To the best of my knowledge, John Rowbotham falls into a similar category to Bobby Madden - a bluenose who tries/tried his hardest to not leave himself open to accusations of bias. That said though, he was just a poor ref in general. Similar to Madden in most respects.

 

[TCWNS1872]

My grandfather who wasn't a football man worked beside George Smith in Edinburgh told us he was a staunch RD who hated us and had a huge chip on his shoulder

I'm assuming you meant RC?

 

[biggee]

one of the very worst. I honestly would say he and the others mentioned frequently on this thread were worse than those today in terms of hatred for us.

 

[The Great Waldo]

Bringing back some horrible memories this thread,,,,,,,
I also remember a ref from the 80s called Alan Ferguson,,,gave us nothing,,,can't remember anything inparticular,,In thinking a cup tie at Dunfermline maybe,,,but his sons all went to the same as me and were all rampant beggars,,,,

I remember him taking great delight in sending off Bomber Brown at East End Park. Bomber went mental and would have killed him if he wasn't held back.

 

[nasalsinatra]

Valentine was one of those whose mission in important games seemed to be to find any reason to give a decision against us. There have been others. Willie Young for instance. In the 1998 Cup Final he awarded Hearts a penalty in the first minute for a foul by Ian Ferguson that was clearly three yards outside the box and then in the last minute he gave Rangers a free-kick six inches outside the box when Davie Weir had clearly fouled McCoist inside the box. One month earlier he red-carded Amoruso at Pittodrie when Lorenzo wanted to take a free-kick just outside the box and he was standing in the way. Lorenzo told him to get out of the way and Young took umbrage. That cost us the league title and 10IAR. But the worst of all has been Craig Thomson. I could write a book about his howlers against Rangers, particularly when playing Celtic.

 

[HammerT]

I remember watching games in the 80s and I was convinced he was a cheating bastard even at my tender age.

 

[truebluerfc]

I’m pretty sure he was the ref that abandoned a Hibs v celtc game on 87 mins because of fog with hibs 2-1 up in the late 70’s/ early 80’s.
Celtc won the replay......maybe someone can confirm?

 

[Talktalk]

The present batch are worse, much, much worse.

Still remember an FF poll at the start of season 1989/90 and it asked for the save of the season?

And the answer was Bob Valentine for saving the filth's!, the previous term.

Was there internet in 1990 ?

 

[Talktalk]

I’m pretty sure he was the ref that abandoned a Hibs v celtc game on 87 mins because of fog with hibs 2-1 up in the late 70’s/ early 80’s.
Celtc won the replay......maybe someone can confirm?

You are 100% bang on the money

 

[gersrus71]

Including the baldy heid

To the best of my knowledge, John Rowbotham falls into a similar category to Bobby Madden - a bluenose who tries/tried his hardest to not leave himself open to accusations of bias. That said though, he was just a poor ref in general. Similar to Madden in most respects.

 

[Twosignals]

A simple question, is that creep Valentine still alive?

 

[yosser hughes]

I’m pretty sure he was the ref that abandoned a Hibs v celtc game on 87 mins because of fog with hibs 2-1 up in the late 70’s/ early 80’s.
Celtc won the replay......maybe someone can confirm?

my recollection of this was hibs winning the replayed game,although i stand to be corrected if indeed my memory is incorrect

 

[dh1963]

my recollection of this was hibs winning the replayed game,although i stand to be corrected if indeed my memory is incorrect

Hibs were 2 up at the piggery round about 1974 when the fog came down and it got abandoned with 5 or 10 mins left. The replayed game finished 1-1.
No idea who the ref was.

 

[truebluerfc]

my recollection of this was hibs winning the replayed game,although i stand to be corrected if indeed my memory is incorrect

Here it is......
It was 1975, Bobby Davidson and replay ended 1-1

• Match abandoned on 85mins - fo. Fogg had plagued the Glasgow area for the last two days.
• Pitch invasion from the Jungle followed and referee could not see fans on the field.
• Hibs outraged at referee's decision and complain to the SFL.
• Game replayed on December 10th and finished in a 1-1 draw.
• With Hibs deservedly leading through two fine goals thick fog descended on Parkhead. With only five minutes left referee Davidson abandoned the game much to the disgust of Hibs' manager Eddie Turnbull who fumed 'There is no way Celtic would have won that game'.
  SFA referees' supervisor Jack Mowat backed Davidson by saying that he had acted correctly by stopping the game.
  
  Sadly the game was marred by an invasion of fans from the Jungle who took advantage of the fog to run on the field.
  
  The Celtic fans in the 33,000 cheered loudly as the game was abandoned but Hibs were left nursing a sense of injustice.

 

[Everywhere anywhere]

The ball clearly hits DJ on the knee. Couldn't wait to give it. Despise the cheating reptile.

PS One of the worse games I've been at.

The week before he sent off John Greig and awarded the sheep a penalty at Pittodrie.

 

[weebaggy]

Here it is......
It was 1975, Bobby Davidson and replay ended 1-1

• Match abandoned on 85mins - fo. Fogg had plagued the Glasgow area for the last two days.
• Pitch invasion from the Jungle followed and referee could not see fans on the field.
• Hibs outraged at referee's decision and complain to the SFL.
• Game replayed on December 10th and finished in a 1-1 draw.
• With Hibs deservedly leading through two fine goals thick fog descended on Parkhead. With only five minutes left referee Davidson abandoned the game much to the disgust of Hibs' manager Eddie Turnbull who fumed 'There is no way Celtic would have won that game'.
  SFA referees' supervisor Jack Mowat backed Davidson by saying that he had acted correctly by stopping the game.
  
  Sadly the game was marred by an invasion of fans from the Jungle who took advantage of the fog to run on the field.
  
  The Celtic fans in the 33,000 cheered loudly as the game was abandoned but Hibs were left nursing a sense of injustice.

33,000 Aye right

 

[ThorntonMM]

Whilst, we might disagree on who is the baddestistsit.

The main, salient point remains.

Rangers have been the victims of some of the most criminal refereeing decisions that you will ever see.

Yet, according to filth propaganda that has never been challenged, we are the winners when it comes to bent referees.

We have only ourselves to blame.

We constantly hear of Celebrity bluenose Ref Bobby Tait jokingly tell us how went out of his way to be Rangers 12th man despite there not being a shred of evidence of it being true. I remember Richard Gough call him out over it at an after dinner speakers night I attended.
Gough told him he gave us no such favours , just like the others.

 

[Tomted]

Seem to recall that there was a referee from Newport on Tay, called John Gordon. Celtic hated him and tried to get him banned. He was the ref in the 3-2 cup final when Tam Forsyth netted his rocket strike from about 6 inches

 

[yosser hughes]

Hibs were 2 up at the piggery round about 1974 when the fog came down and it got abandoned with 5 or 10 mins left. The replayed game finished 1-1.
No idea who the ref was.

Thanks for that.I had in the back of my mind that they didn't win the replayed game hence why I thought they had lost.

 

[monkey magic]

Some of the decisions against us back then were scandalous, and not just Valentine either.

 

[Stez64]

Some of the decisions against us back then were scandalous, and not just Valentine either.

Quite incredible.
What was the official reason for Robertson's goal being disallowed?

 

[Arkansasgerstill]

Valentine was one of those whose mission in important games seemed to be to find any reason to give a decision against us. There have been others. Willie Young for instance. In the 1998 Cup Final he awarded Hearts a penalty in the first minute for a foul by Ian Ferguson that was clearly three yards outside the box and then in the last minute he gave Rangers a free-kick six inches outside the box when Davie Weir had clearly fouled McCoist inside the box. One month earlier he red-carded Amoruso at Pittodrie when Lorenzo wanted to take a free-kick just outside the box and he was standing in the way. Lorenzo told him to get out of the way and Young took umbrage. That cost us the league title and 10IAR.

You obviously have no idea where Willie’s loyalties lie! The difference is Rangers supporting refs always seem to err on the side of caution when it comes to Rangers decisions.

 

[SimonLeBon]

What about Ian Foote or as some called him Ian Flute?

 

[Gauche.]

We had another thread on this guy recently, I am glad this one has come up,as some of the younger fans should be knowledgeable about how regularly we have been cheated down the years.
The myth about Rangers teams being successful because of official bias in our favour should be challenged by every generation.
In my opinion,and I have to disagree with other fans, the guy was an out and out cheat who hated us as much as any irafitbawclub fan.
The 1989 cup final, Rangers could have scored 12 perfectly good goals that day,and he would have disallowed every one.

 

[Grigo Yossarian]

McGinley is the one that sticks in my head simply because my uncle Fukin hated him.
Whenever we got a bad decision against us no matter who the ref was he would shout “the refs a McGinley” even in European ties.
It started being his word to describe cheating.
If you were playing him at any games etc and he suspected you were cheating he would call you a McGinley

Have to say I thought McGinley & McCluskey were the best at that time.

Jim McCluskey had the terriers looking into him because he was a Freemason. It broke, of course, on the morning of a LC Semi against them iirc. And he denied us a 100% penalty due to the pressure put on him.

 

[Grigo Yossarian]

You obviously have no idea where Willie’s loyalties lie! The difference is Rangers supporting refs always seem to err on the side of caution when it comes to Rangers decisions.

Was Willie a bear ? He obviously hid it well if he was.

I met him years ago at a training course & got the train back to Glasgow with him. Very good company but I never breached the big issue with him.

 

[Gringo]

That video shows you what we were up against, some of those decisions are infuriating.

The Robertson ‘goal’ which was ruled out for offiside, it was a rhabid mentally challenged who was running the line that day. I used to be on the old BBC forum years ago - 606 I think it was called, it was a mixed forum and at times there was good chat, the subject of that game came up and a couple of poets were talking about the linesman, they knew him well and couldn’t actually believe he was running the line, they were joking on their supporters bus before the game, Celtic were a cert for a dodgy penalty, a red card for Rangers or a goal ruled out for offside.

 

[HMS.Temple.Garden]

Willie Miller is the greatest ref this country has every produced, the GOAT, he managed to play and ref games at the same time.

 

[instructor]

The ball clearly hits DJ on the knee. Couldn't wait to give it. Despise the cheating reptile.

PS One of the worse games I've been at.

I was at this game, you are correct, never a penalty and a horrible match.

 

[JRei8790]

Whilst, we might disagree on who is the baddestistsit.

The main, salient point remains.

Rangers have been the victims of some of the most criminal refereeing decisions that you will ever see.

Yet, according to filth propaganda that has never been challenged, we are the winners when it comes to bent referees.

We have only ourselves to blame.

The fact we have forums like this to highlight the above is no doubt a factor in all being aware of the witch hunt against our club. When in fact it was there before the tinternt was with us

 

[monkey magic]

Quite incredible.
What was the official reason for Robertson's goal being disallowed?

Robertson had to run past three Celtc defenders to be offside.

 

[TCWNS1872]

Willie Miller is the greatest ref this country has every produced, the GOAT, he managed to play and ref games at the same time.

Ha ha ha. Said as much masel a page or two back. Without doubt the finest Scottish referee I've seen (or am likely to see) in my lifetime.

 

[maxblue]

Willie young a bear was at a sportsman’s dinner a few years ago he was one of the speakers was very complimentary to Celtic
Said the best player to play in Scotland was larsson

 

[HMS.Temple.Garden]

Ha ha ha. Said as much masel a page or two back. Without doubt the finest Scottish referee I've seen (or am likely to see) in my lifetime.

I remember he lost his shit when McCoist won a penalty against him in the League Cup, fuming!

 

[Stez64]

Robertson had to run past three Celtc defenders to be offside.

I laughed , but fuckinhell, that must be the worst decision since football began

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

Was there internet in 1990 ?

I never sai =

Have to say I thought McGinley & McCluskey were the best at that time.

Jim McCluskey had the terriers looking into him because he was a Freemason. It broke, of course, on the morning of a LC Semi against them iirc. And he denied us a 100% penalty due to the pressure put on him.

It was the 1990 LC final and he was supposed to have went into an Orange Hall.

His performance in the 1992 Ne'erday was a disgrace and no different from Midden these days.

Mark McNally dived full length on the goal line to punch a ball away and McCluskey bodyswerved it.

 

[Grigo Yossarian]

I never sai =


It was the 1990 LC final and he was supposed to have went into an Orange Hall.

His performance in the 1992 Ne'erday was a disgrace and no different from Midden these days.

Mark McNally dived full length on the goal line to punch a ball away and McCluskey bodyswerved it.

Yes, he struggled with the pressure after that came out Bud.

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

Yes, he struggled with the pressure after that came out Bud.

He also deliberately ignored Mowbray running off the park after equalising that day. Mowbray had already been booked.

And we should remember, Mo Johnston was booked for the exact same behaviour 14 months previously at Ibrox.

Says it all really.

 

[Grigo Yossarian]

That video shows you what we were up against, some of those decisions are infuriating.

The Robertson ‘goal’ which was ruled out for offiside, it was a rhabid mentally challenged who was running the line that day. I used to be on the old BBC forum years ago - 606 I think it was called, it was a mixed forum and at times there was good chat, the subject of that game came up and a couple of poets were talking about the linesman, they knew him well and couldn’t actually believe he was running the line, they were joking on their supporters bus before the game, Celtic were a cert for a dodgy penalty, a red card for Rangers or a goal ruled out for offside.

A disgraceful decision. Dallas was the ref I’m sure.

Dallas had a load against us too. The one referred to earlier about not red carding the Tim goalie in the shame game ? He shat it.

Another that really annoyed me from him was the 3.3 game at Ibrox when Van Hooijdonk who was on a yellow scored their third to equalise & left the park to celebrate with the scum. At that time leaving the park was 100% a yellow & Dallas shat it again. To make things worse the SFA ( I think Farry ? ) later publicly used this as an example of a ref using common sense. Why ? Because the red would’ve meant crowd trouble.

So clear proof then that the scum fans behaviour was an influence in refs decisions.

Am I going mad or does anyone else remember this ?

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

A disgraceful decision. Dallas was the ref I’m sure.

Dallas had a load against us too. The one referred to earlier about not red carding the Tim goalie in the shame game ? He shat it.

Another that really annoyed me from him was the 3.3 game at Ibrox when Van Hooijdonk who was on a yellow scored their third to equalise & left the park to celebrate with the scum. At that time leaving the park was 100% a yellow & Dallas shat it again. To make things worse the SFA ( I think Farry ? ) later publicly used this as an example of a ref using common sense. Why ? Because the red would’ve meant crowd trouble.

So clear proof then that the scum fans behaviour was an influence in refs decisions.

Am I going mad or does anyone else remember this ?

Archie McPherson came out in his column in the Sunday Mail in 1992 and said the ref was correct not to give Mowbray a second yellow card as it would have caused a riot.

So here we had one of the so called top pundit's admitting you shouldn't referee the filth to the same standards as anyone else, in case you upset their fans.

 

[Grigo Yossarian]

Archie McPherson came out in his column in the Sunday Mail in 1992 and said the ref was correct not to give Mowbray a second yellow card as it would have caused a riot.

So here we had one of the so called top pundit's admitting you shouldn't referee the filth to the same standards as anyone else, in case you upset their fans.

I didn’t remember that one Bud but really, when you think of what he’s said, it’s that they have bullied Scottish football into not applying the rules properly. And these were best part of 30 years ago !!