No defending Scott Brown’s behaviour

Those who claim the Celtic captain’s dismissal against Barcelona was harsh don’t understand the rules of the game.

There are no excuses for Scott Brown’s conduct in Celtic’s Champions League tie with Barcelona. I watched his fly kick at Neymar as the Brazilian was on the ground, the consequence of a foul he himself had committed, live on television. I wasn’t surprised in the slightest that he was red-carded. I knew straight away that was the only outcome.

What did take me aback was the number of people who subsequently queued up to argue he had been treated harshly.

Various pundits, Neil Lennon and, eventually the player himself, all claimed he should not have gone off as he “hadn’t done much.” Do these people not understand the rules of the game?

It doesn’t matter that he didn’t do any damage through his kick. It doesn’t matter at all. Expand the argument and you would be arguing that a player who threw a punch and missed should be given the benefit of the doubt. That would be ludicrous and the same principle applies here.

Having had a close-up view of the incident, the referee effectively had no decision to make. And it is when we start from this, the correct point, that the behaviour of Brown looks particularly poor.

Remember this is the Celtic captain we are talking about. It is an important position. A list of his predecessors includes some seriously impressive men.

Remember too, that the Scotland internationalist is playing as well as anyone in the country at the moment. He has been widely praised for the maturity as well as the quality of his performances. By getting himself sent off as he did, Brown forced his side to play with 10 men for half an hour. That would be tough enough in any circumstance. This was, arguably, their toughest test of the season.

And, of course, his was an action with a serious consequence. The violent conduct is likely to carry a two-game, if not three games, competition ban. That means he will be out of the Ajax double-header, ties Celtic will need to win to be sure even of making the Europa League.

Don’t get me wrong, they have a strong squad. If Joe Ledley, for example, comes in you are adding a Wales internationalist. However, Neil Lennon will certainly regret the loss of Brown.

Managers often feel they have to publicly defend their players. What gets said behind closed doors can be quite different from what goes out for general consumption. I am sure any number of former professionals would agree that is the case.

The player has apologised and that is fair enough. After all, everyone makes mistakes.

Of more value to Celtic fans and their manager, though, would be the midfielder making sure he cuts out such needless behaviour in the future.