Derek McInnes fuming over ref's sacking after Rangers and Celtic controversy as he spots 'convenient' factor

Derek McInnes has claimed a matter of convenience after a referee was sacked following Rangers and Celtic controversies.

Alan Muir’s frontline career has been brought to an abrupt halt after two errors involving both sides of Glasgow’s heated rivals. One was missed a Rangers penalty in the Premier Sports Cup final that the Hoops eventually won before the VAR specialist disallowed a Celtic goal in a 2-1 defeat to Hibs incorrectly.

Ahead of Kilmarnock’s Premiership trip to Celtic on Saturday, McInnes has jumped to the defence of Muir. He believes there are others who have also made errors in big moments.

Kilmarnock boss fumes after referee sacking

He said: “He is a brilliant referee. There have been bigger VAR mistakes involving games with clubs like ourselves, St Mirren, Motherwell and the rest of it. A precedent has been set. But two high-profile games ? Maybe it's convenient to do that. I don't know the ins and outs of it, but all I would say in Alan's defence is that he has been a very good referee over a long period of time.

"He's also been a very good fourth official when I have had interactions with him. I don't know the qualities they need to be in the VAR room, but I can think of a few more who have had a lot of high-profile mistakes as well. It's disappointing to see a good guy being treated that way. But who knows the reasons why."

It’s not been a quiet week surrounding Killie for bad refereeing decisions eithers. In their 2-0 win against Motherwell, the Steelmen’s Kofi Balmer was incorrectly sent off for a challenge on Fraser Murray. McInnes added: “We were 1-0 up at the time of the red card and we were the better team anyway. It was a professional performance.”

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers said of Muir’s dismissal: “We all make mistakes, absolutely. I’m not sure whether that was Alan’s decision or however it’s come about. I think we’re all in work, we’re all on the job and if we don’t do it quite to the level, we’ll all be moved on. There are very few jobs you go into and work where you won’t lose your job. But I always think up here, so long as the referees are getting the support, the help, the education to develop, if it’s consistent mistakes over long periods of time and you’re giving evidence to people that you’re not quite seeing the game, then naturally you’re not going to be in the position.

“It’s a really difficult job and ask for the guys, but like I said, if you’re making mistakes and you’re not quite seeing things consistently, then that’s maybe what can happen. I’m sure he’ll feel free to just enjoy his life now, Alan, and he can walk into the supermarket and have no problems, I’m sure. It’s education, it’s learning, it’s development and we all know we’ll make mistakes.”

Looking ahead to Celtic

McInnes knows how tough Killie will find it against Celtic, who can wrap up the title this weekend if they win and Rangers lose against Aberdeen. He said in his pre match press conference: Obviously, some games are more difficult than others, and there’s no tougher game than going to Celtic Park. We’ve just got to try and do a lot of what we feel we have to do when we go there. We expect a tough game, but equally we need to try and make it difficult for them.

“Saturday will be a totally different game. I thought we played in the right areas against Motherwell, we dominated a lot of the game – even with 11 men I thought we were doing the most attacking. But Celtic average 74% possession in the league – they dominate the ball, so it’s a different type of game.

“We still need to be a bit more us – and last Saturday, we were. We played forward, we carried a goal threat, we were industrious, we worked hard, we were really compact. We gave up very few opportunities, and we’re going to have our work cut out to make good decisions and defend properly on Saturday. But hopefully we can take confidence from that result.”