John Beaton will referee Celtic’s Premier Sports League Cup Final later this month as Ange Postecoglou’s side looks to seal the first piece of silverware available this season. Beaton has only refereed one Celtic game this year, a League Cup win over Hearts back in August. The referee will be joined by Graeme Stewart and Calum Spence as Assistant Referees with Greg Aitken acting as Fourth Official for the showpiece game.
Celtic will face Hibs at Hampden on Sunday 19 December with a piece of silverware up for grabs. Whilst Celtic fans that were lucky enough to be allocated a ticket snap them up, Hibs have had to put their end of General Sale to get punters in the door – despite their moaning about parity.
Ange’s side will prepare for the game against Hibs with the Europa League clash against Real Betis on Thursday night before competing on league duty with games against Motherwell (H) and Ross County (A). The final Europa League game will provide the manager the chance to rotate his players and make sure that those that have been burdened with sizeable workloads are allowed a rest.
Match referee John Beaton. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
John Beaton has been confirmed by the SFA as the man in the middle for Celtic’s Premier Sports Cup Final match against Hibernian FC at Hampden Park on 19 December. Celtic overcame St Johnstone 1-0 in the Semi-final and Hibs dismantled theRangers 3-1 respectively. Both teams will be looking to get their hands of the first trophy of the new season just before Christmas.
Beaton will take charge of the game in a few weeks time. Beaton has been a source of consistent frustration for the Celtic Support, who have had to endure watching the blue-nosed referee make sure his favourite team do not drop points, at the same time as hammering Celtic at every opportunity available to him.
Graeme Stewart and Calum Spence will be the linesman, whilst it will be Greg Aitken that will be the fourth official on the day. Ange Postecoglou and his side will have to perform to their optimum performance levels on the day of the cup final so there are no excuses of refereeing decisions playing a part on the outcome of the game.
After the recent outcry surrounding Kyogo Furuhashi and his supposed offside goal versus Hearts last Thursday, the knives will be out for Celtic moving forward and we cannot allow any complacency to slip in. If the game is tight, be sure to be on the lookout for a John Beaton favour to Jack Ross’ side.
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