Falls to the ground in the box, handles the ball, and gets a free kick for it…the wacky world of Steve McLean and John Beaton

In the wacky world of Steven McLean and John Beaton, they play by their own rules.

The laws of the game do not apply to these guys, especially when it comes to their favourite side.

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but if you handle ball in the penalty area, that does result in a penalty, does it not?

Apparently not in Steven McLean or John Beaton’s book.

Last night, Ibrox super defender, John Souttar, slipped to the ground on his own box with nobody around him.

While he was on the deck, he handled the ball, and as the Motherwell players jostled with him to gain possession of the ball, McLean inexplicably blew for a free kick.

Decent save by Butland….I mean Souter 🙄

This is what happens when you have a fan as the referee and a fan on VAR @ScottishFA

Before any daft Hun cunt replies….do the Ralston semi test. This one is far worse! https://t.co/Kd5rv4LB5R

— Kevin Barry (@KBG1888) February 11, 2026

Despite the fact the Motherwell players weren’t doing anything illegal, other than trying regain possession of the ball.

Which they were perfectly entitled to do.

Now, the media would have you believe there was only one penalty incident at Fir Park last night.

That, of course, involved the Ibrox side.

Where Youssef Chermiti was brought down in the box by Paul McGinn and Elliott Watt.

However, former EPL ref, Mark Clattenburg dismissed the claims that it should have been a penalty, citing minimal contact as his reasoning.

I would imagine the Motherwell support collectively held their breath when Chermiti went down, fully expecting it to be a penalty to Raynjurz.

But McLean and Beaton shocked everyone by taking no further action.

Maybe a penalty in 7 out of 8 games would look a bit suspicious, wouldn’t it?

Now that another game has passed without a penalty, it’ll be open season again at Ibrox next Sunday when Hearts are the visitors.

Danny Röhl has failed part one of this two part crucial week in the title race by dropping points at Fir Park.

I pretty much predicted this would happen in my article last night.

Because just as the Ibrox side starts to get a tad cocky, it always comes crashing down around their ears again.

Rohl stated his players were now fearless, well, you wouldn’t have thought so at Fir Park last night.

Even when down to ten men, Motherwell retained possession and kept the pressure on them.

In the end, the home side had 63% possession and peppered Jack Butland’s goal with 18 shots.

What’s astounding is that Souttar’s handling of the ball in the box didn’t even warrant a second look from Beaton in the VAR room.

After he fell, it was hilarious the way Steven McLean stood in front of him after awarding the free kick to him.

As if to protect him from the savage Motherwell player who only wanted the ball to play football with it.

As for the sending off?

Lukas Fadinger probably deserved it after his lunge on Mikey Moore.

However, once Beaton had sent McLean to the monitor and the red card became inevitable, he must have thought it was game over then.

He was probably sure his favourite side would press their advantage home and win comfortably.

The complete opposite happened.

Motherwell pressed, and pressed and fittingly got their equaliser through none other than Celtic’s Stephen Welsh.

Just another night in the wacky refereeing world of Steven McLean and John Beaton.

That didn’t really go according to plan.

Whoops…