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They say time is a great healer. But not if you’re an Old Firm fan who has just lost a Glasgow derby to your city rivals. And when you feel you’ve been robbed of a result by the officials? Well, that just rubs salt into a gaping wound. A full 48 hours after Celtic’s 3-1 win in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, the Rangers faithful are still hurting. In their eyes, whistler Nick Walsh and his VAR pals have inflicted the pain. And even if he holds he or refs chief Willie Collum hold their hands up and say Auston Trusty deserved a red card for his kick at Jack Butland - it won’t ease the Ibrox punters’ suffering. At least the Hotline can act as some sort of therapy. First up, Scott Gowers, Edinburgh, said: “The SFA and Collum can’t come up with any excuses. I wonder if Trusty will face retrospective action? If not the SFA should be ashamed for condoning such a dangerous assault. “In no way was that a legitimate challenge for the ball as it was not there to be won. It won’t change the result. It just makes a mockery of the officials’ integrity.” Chris Lowe, Yoker said: “Two years in a row now Rangers have been robbed by biased refereeing in the same competition. “It has gotten worse since our head of referees was appointed. Collum’s position is now untenable and the integrity of our game is in question.” Alan Flett, Glasgow said: “Once again the match officials have bent over backwards to make sure Celtic get what they want. “Nobody should be surprised anymore. The SFA have been tiptoeing around Celtic for as long as I can remember. Even Scotland managers have shown favouritism towards their players for years.” Rab Hunter, Dumfries said: “It’s abundantly clear that Walsh is incapable of officiating in a neutral, unbiased or impartial manner when Celtic are involved. He has turned into Collum 2.0 and shouldn’t be permitted to referee a Celtic match against anyone again. “Any honest or objective officiating body would implement such a ban immediately. Is anyone here old enough to remember the last time a Celtic player received a red card in a domestic match? I’m nearly 70 and I’m struggling.” At least a couple of Rangers supporters were a bit more reflective and philosophical in defeat. Rather than berate the officials, they pinned the blame on some of their current - and former - employees. Drew Ferguson, Oban said: “We can complain about the obvious dubious decisions against us on Sunday but the main reason we lost the game was due to the dearth of quality at Danny Rohl’s disposal. Kevin Thelwell and Russell Martin are the main culprits.” Alan Milligan, Glasgow said: “What has happened to Findlay Curtis and Lyall Cameron at Ibrox? Both of them haven’t featured for weeks when players like Joe Rothwell, Oliver Antman and Thelo Aasgaard are making the team. It’s a bit of coincidence that neither of them were signed by Thelwell.” Of course, there are two sides to every story. Especially when it comes to the Old Firm. Plenty of Celtic fans weren’t happy with Walsh’s display either so are taking great delight in telling the blue half of Glasgow to dry their eyes. Kenny Wilson, Moffat said: “So the excuses are in again from the usual callers. It’s always someone else’s fault. While I think Trusty should have seen red, what about the Derek Cornelius challenge? That was also a red card. “Daizen Maeda wasn’t offside for our goal and it wasn’t a penalty for Rangers. So if you actually look at it - the ref was on your side and you still got beat by a better team.” James Logan, Glasgow said: “Rangers were beaten fair and square on Sunday. Their subsequent bleating about decisions is boring as it is predictable. “The Kemar Roofe incident in Europe a few years ago is a reminder that they’re a bunch of hypocrites.” Eddie Easson, Ballingry said: “Here we go with the whataboutery. There were a lot of poor decisions in the game and I won’t even go into the fouls by Rangers that went unpunished. This is a ploy by them to put pressure on the referees. “The truth is Celtic are a different team under Martin O’Neill and Rangers found this out.” Jerry Fanning, East Kilbride said: “The game was two days and they’re still going on about the referee. “I agree we were lucky Trusty only got a yellow. But Rangers should have been down to nine men after Cornelius’ over the ball tackle on Kenny. Get over it, you weren’t good enough to beat us.” Seamie Gallagher, Govan , said: “Everyone wants to talk about officials but I’ll salute the best player on the park by a mile, Callum McGregor. “He always delivers in these games and leads by example. He’s a true captain and warrior for Celtic, culminating in a brilliant goal on Sunday.” After this weekend’s games, surely the derby debris will drift? By then we’ll have two massive World Cup qualifiers to contend with. Stephen Mulhern, Dumbarton would surely provide some Old Firm respite. He said: “It was not before time that Scott Bain was reintroduced to the Scotland squad. “Bain should be congratulated for kick-starting his career at Falkirk instead of warming the bench at Celtic. Unlike former Motherwell captain Liam Kelly who is content to sit in the shadow of Jack Butland at Ibrox.” Ah well, maybe not.
