Chick Young's view

By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

Aberdeen claim that Nicholls was "hell bent" on sending players off

It has been a bad week for referees and Holy Willies.

As Celtic chairman John Reid was laying into the sanctimonious - and I have reason to believe that his target was not indeed Rangers, but rather some shareholders who attended his own club's AGM - Aberdeen were turning the guns on poor Steven Nicholls.

Rookie ref Nicholls, it seems, could give the currently petted-lipped postmen a half-mile start when it comes to delivering cards.

On the club's official website someone scripted the words: "When cards are being dished out like confetti, players become afraid to make tackles.

"Nine against 11 - perhaps make that 12 - for the best part of half an hour means an unequal situation and that is cheating the fans."

That, I have to say, is a pretty serious accusation. "Cheat" is a noun that has legal teams getting their mouths all shaped for the words "libel" and "slander".

In fact, they have obviously gone as far as suggesting he was performing for Hibs. Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab. This is not for the faint hearted.

And for sure it blows from the water Hugh Dallas's Pravda-style agreement with clubs that they would not comment on referees' performances to the media after the games.

MY SPORT: DEBATE Are Aberdeen right to complain about referee Steven Nicholls?

Not that I ever believed the gagging would work in the first place.

Aberdeen will be punished by the Scottish Football Association for this, of course they will.

Otherwise, Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov might rightly question that there is one rule for Lithuanians and one for the natives, given that he has a standing order with the association to square up his fines.

The blood-spitting Dons even suggested Nicholls allowed the game to degenerate to the level of farce.

Brian Rix - the king of the art form - would be awful proud.

Actually, as long as they are aware of the laws of the land, I defend in true Braveheart-style to my dying day Aberdeen's right to voice an opinion.

The SFA need to wake up to the fact that if people don't chip in their tuppenceworth then the game is dead.

It's what makes football breathe in bars and living rooms across the country.

However, I don't agree with much they said.

It's all-out verbal war. The world has gone stark-raging bonkers Chick Young

Dallas has already defended his organisation's plan to fast-track match officials to the big time. Indeed Nicholls, bound for the Fifa list, was in just his second SPL game.

But I watched television highlights of the key moments of the game and there has to be a time when players take a little responsibility for their actions.

Tackles were flying in despite the Dons website claims that "hardly a strong tackle was made", and if you suggest the match official was performing as a 12th man for the opposition then it is innuendo which points at something next door to corruption.

There have been some pretty miserable refereeing performances this season - and not all of them from Scots.

The Swedish oaf Mr Eriksson who took charge of Rangers v Sevilla in the Champions League match at Ibrox was a role model for any aspiring idiot.

Sometimes it is far too easy to blame your own shortcomings on others - and I'll hold my hand up to that - and referees don't operate in camouflage.

Pin-pointing individual mistakes is one thing. Machine-gun fire claiming out-and-out bias is another altogether.

Reid spoke of "a boring crowd of Holy Willies" on the other side of Glasgow

Mind you, Michael Stewart has returned the fire.

The Hearts captain is fair raging at the written media after claiming his comments on Hibs were "manipulated" in an attempt to stir the mood ahead of this weekend's Edinburgh derby.

He used the Hearts website - er, that'll be the written media - to have a right go at the hacks who allegedly stitched him up.

"They are complete parasites," he said. "They tried to manipulate, twist and put a spin on everything that has been said."

It's all-out verbal war. The world has gone stark-raging bonkers.

Nobody is safe out there. Even newspaper reporters are under fire - and none of it is very friendly.

It was Robert Burns who wrote about Holy Willie.

Even that old soul would have been left without a prayer in the cruel modern world of the Scottish game.