Anger as referee calls time on Hibs in sixes

And their assistant manager, Murdo MacLeod, led the protests to the

SFA after an amazing decision by Edinburgh referee, Bill Crombie.

Hibs went into their final qualifying game knowing that if they beat

Celtic by two goals, they could pip St Johnstone and take a semi-final

place along with the Parkhead club.

Pat McGinlay and Willie Miller put them the two goals ahead. And then,

cleverly, they inter-passed the ball to keep it away from Celtic, thus

stopping any chance of the opposition scoring. Incredibly, referee

Crombie stepped in to award a foul against them for time-wasting even

though there is no note of this in the rules of the competition.

To the anger of Hibs, Celtic, having been given the ball, went upfield

for Gerry Creaney to score and knock the Easter Road side out of the

tournament. When referee Crombie blew the final whistle, he was

immediately surrounded by angry Hibs players, and Darren Jackson had to

be pulled away.

Assistant manager MacLeod then went to speak to SFA officials to

appeal against the decision.

MacLeod said: ''In all my time in football, I have never known a team

to be penalised for time wasting when the ball is in play. It was up to

Celtic to come and get the ball off us.''

SFA press officer, David Findlay, said: ''Basically the referee is the

sole arbiter on the field of play. Looking at this as a neutral, it

could be said that by not being positive, Hibs were not playing to the

spirit of the game. But another view is that they were positive as they

were in their opponents' half of the field.''

Earlier, St Johnstone had given themselves a chance to progress when

goals from John Inglis, Paul Wright, and Tommy Turner were enough to

defeat Falkirk 3-1. In the second section, two goals from Owen Coyle and

another from Kenny Black enabled Airdrie to beat Hearts 3-2 and also

take a semi-final place.

Hearts received some consolation. After Geroge Wright had netted, Tosh

McKinlay added a second and that was the 1000th goal scored in the

competition since it began 10 years ago.

Partick Thistle then defeated Motherwell 4-3 to qualify along with

Airdrie in Section 2. Scores:

St Johnstone 3, Falkirk 1; Airdrie 3, Hearts 2; Hibs 2, Celtic 1;

Partick Thistle 4, Motherwell 3.

BOBBY Russell makes his return to Scottish football tonight. The

former Rangers and Motherwell midfielder is included in the Ayr United

side for the first-division match against Stirling Albion at Somerset

Park.

Russell gave up football when he left Motherwell at the end of last

season because of injury but was tempted back by Irish club Coleraine.

He signed for Ayr last week.

Two thousand ground tickets for Ayr's Scottish Cup-tie with Rangers on

Saturday, February 6, will go on sale before the match. Fans attending

the game will receive a voucher which will entitle them to purchase a #7

ground ticket inside Somerset Park.

* BRIAN Clough has singled out his son Nigel as a priority in the next

round of contract talks at Nottingham Forest. Manager Clough, who

clinched new four-year deals with goalkeeper Mark Crossley, midfielder

Scot Gemmill, and winger Ian Woan last week, now wants his son to make

the same commitment.