Wait with bated breath for Willie Collum’s final VAR review of season

The Scottish FA earlier today confirmed the match officials for the Glasgow Derby on Sunday as Celtic take on the Rangers at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership…

Celtic maintained their winning run with a 2-1 win over Hibs at Easter Road in a match that will be remembered more for blatant, clear and obvious errors of the match officials including Douglas Ross running the line,  David Dickinson with the whistle and Don Robertson on VAR.

A series of shocking decisions at Easter Road 

They contrived to flag for Daizen Maeda’s goal that was onside, thankfully VAR cleared that error from Douglas Ross up, deny Celtic a stonewall penalty kick when Benjamin Nygren was pushed off the pitch and allowed a Hibernian equaliser despite the ball hitting the goalscorer’s arm then hand.

That turned a 3-0 or more comfortable win into a nervy 2-1 victory and dented Celtic’s possible goal difference improvement, something that could be important a week on Saturday when the trophy is lifted at Celtic Park.

The match officials yesterday at Tynecastle had no real controversial incidents to contend with.  The latest Ibrox club went in at the interval deserving of their 1-0 lead thanks to a cruel deflection that gave the Hearts keeper no chance.

Rangers don’t have a 90 minute performance in them reckons Kris Boyd 

However Kris Boyd had pointed out that the Rangers didn’t have a 90 minute performance in them and he was shown to be bang on the money as Hearts turned the game around after the break to win the match 2-1. The winner came from Lawrence Shankland who was available on a free last summer with no takers from Glasgow.

Hearts are now three points ahead of Celtic and seven clear of the Rangers who have just 1% chance of the title according to reports today. Hearts remain slight favourites (51%) while Celtic apparently have a 48% chance of retaining the title.

Celtic gaffer expects more twists and turns in title race 

Martin O’Neill was discussing this on talkSport earlier today and the veteran Celtic manager reckons there are still a few further twists and turns to come before the eventual outcome is determined. We will report on that next on Celticshorts.com.

Next up is the Motherwell v Hearts on Saturday evening and that match is live on Sky Sports.

Rangers have lost both post-split games 

The next morning Celtic take on the Rangers and both sides will be desperate for the three points. Danny Rohl was talking after the defeat at Tynecastle, demanding that his players pick up the remaining nine points as he desperately tries to maintain any sort of title challenge with only three games remaining and having lost to both Motherwell and Hearts post-split.

Martin O’Neill eyes five wins from five post split 

Martin O’Neill, who will be looking to Motherwell doing Celtic a favour on Saturday night, will be determined to collect the three points as the target of five wins from five post split games stays on track. Given the goal difference situation as things currently stand, a comprehensive victory with an emphatic scoreline would be wonderful for the Celtic cause.  But the three points will do nicely.

Nick Walsh has whistle for Glasgow Derby, John Beaton is the VAR 

So to the match officials for the final Glasgow Derby of the season.  Nick Walsh will have the whistle and he will be assisted by Frank Connor and Daniel McFarlane. After refereeing the match at Tynecastle yesterday John Beaton is on VAR duties on Sunday for the Celtic v Rangers match and he will be assisted by Chris Graham.

Meanwhile we wait with bated breath for Willie Collum’s final VAR review of the season as he tries to justify the unjustifiable from the shambles of a day for the match officials at Easter Road on Sunday afternoon.

Will the @ScottishFA admit they got the Hibs handball wrong and will investigate? pic.twitter.com/3ervBUO4Yf

— Paul (@phford40) May 5, 2026