Chick Young's view

By Chick Young BBC Scotland football correspondent

You can always count on the football authorities to take things too far... like, say, Scotland's smoking ban.

For me - and the rest of the anti-tobacco brigade - banning cigarettes from pubs, clubs and workplaces was different class, although bizarrely nowadays, given that doorways are gathering places for smokers, you now have to nip inside for a breath of fresh air where once it was the other way round.

But, dear reader, I digress. This is the case for the defence of poor Stephen Simmons, booked for the celebration of his second goal for Dunfermline which ushered Partick Thistle to the Scottish Cup exit.

Stephen Simmons takes a puff on his imaginary cigar

And all because he pretended to smoke a cigar in celebration. Pretended, mind you.

The Pars midfielder mimicked the old Groucho Marx routine as Dunfermline - for once - were smokin' as the Jags defence, as Billy Connolly once famously said, was like an ashtray... full of little doubts.

Simmons said he reacted to Thistle fans who were trying to wind him up.

The supporters from Maryhill, where they used to just love the banter pled their innocence and cliped on the player.

Referee Ian Brines did what he was told from above... and flashed the yellow card which now precludes Simmons from selection for the semi-final.

Has it come to this? Are we all so precious that we can't laugh when the joke is on us?

Football, if I can just remind you, is in the entertainment business. But Fifa, Uefa, the SFA and various sundry others are agencies for the prevention of fun.

And players celebrating goals have always been treated like suffragettes.

First they banned the choreographed dance routines, like Dundee's duck-walk, the swivel hip Saturday night fever one-on-one with the corner flag and one memorable hokey-cokey hoe-down which virtually had the crowd joining in.

That's the problem of course, crowd safety.

You're not allowed to cuddle your supporters in the style of Kenny Miller at Inverness where he launched himself into the arms of fans like a sailor meeting the missus after three months at sea.

Goal-hero Simmons is now banned for the Scottish Cup semi-final

And that I can understand. That triggers a crowd surge and that's never a good thing.

But Simmons stayed on the park and the cigar action was just a bit of fun. Havana laugh, if I'm a tabloid headline writer.

It's always been a one way street between supporter and player with the paying customer seemingly allowed to fire all sorts of verbal abuse and hand actions in the directions of the opposition - and occasionally their own team - while players are hammered at the slightest sign of reaction.

I don't think that's fair.

Simmons didn't deserve his booking and maybe Ian Brines agreed, but He Who Must Be Obeyed, the referee supervisor, would have marked him down if he hadn't produced the yellow.

Players aren't always innocent. I remember looking on in astonishment at Love Street as Chic Charnley gave St Mirren fans the v-sign and another dodgy hand signal involving his right fist and his left arm, which wasn't really the thing to do given he was actually playing for their team at the time.

But supporters need to chill.

My Sport: What do you think of Chick's opinion?

Frankly, I don't believe for one second that the Jags supporters weren't giving Simmons and his team-mates stick from behind the goal... and if you give it out you better be prepared for the return of fire.

As it happens the Dunfermline player did it with a bit of style.

They must have said something. It was a classic case of no smoking without fire...