‘Sorry to grass you up mate’ – Moment St Johnstone spotted telling BALL BOYS to slow down during big Prem w…
IT was a great backs-to-the-wall effort from bottom side St Johnstone as they breathed new life into their survival hopes against Premiership champions elect Celtic.
While Latvian defender Daniels Balodis was the matchwinner with an early header and goalkeeper Andy Fisher produced a string of fine saves, this was a huge team effort – with even the BALL BOYS getting in on the action.
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The Sky TV cameras showed a member of the St Johnstone staff doing a lap of McDiarmid Park and instructing them NOT to give the ball back too quickly as they clung onto their lead in the closing stages.
Sky commentator Ian Crocker certainly noticed, saying: “This fellow is telling all the ball boys not to get the ball back on the pitch too quickly.
“Sorry to grass you up, mate!”
Earlier this season the SPFL attempted to standardise rules relating to ball-boys – with them now FORBIDDEN from passing the ball to their heroes.
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Instead, all balls must be placed on a cone at five specific points along each touchline and two behind each goal – with the ball boys’ only job to retrieve the ball from the stands if required.
That means t’s up to players to either bring the previous ball back into play themselves – or lift the nearest one from a cone.
It’s a bid for a more consistent approach from ball-boys and ball-girls, who have played a part in games themselves.
In Scottish football folklore Archie Knox revealed he paid Hampden ball-boys to waste time in the 1992 Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic.
It worked as Gers went through and lifted the cup.
Last season Neil Warnock also questioned the ball-boys at Ibrox – suggesting they had been taught to WASTE TIME and slow the game down when the home side were ahead.
Arsenal signing Callan Hamill shows off his football skills playing for St. Johnstone Football Club
The club was also censured for ‘unsporting conduct’ in a European tie last season.
Across the city, former Hibs boss Lee Johnson once hailed Celtic‘s ball-boys ‘world class’ and admitted he was picking a team based on THEIR actions and quick-thinking for his team’s trip to Parkhead in 2022.
Scotland were even given a formal Uefa warning for the national team’s ball attendants after the national team famously defeated France at Hampden in 2006.
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