My Rangers have b**** and the team I adore forced me to banish a major fear about Celtic – Barry Ferguson

Fair play to Willie Collum.

He might not have been everyone’s cup of tea when he was out there on the pitch as the man in the middle. But I have to put my hands up and admit he’s been a breath of fresh air since moving into the role as head of Scotland’s refs. And my admiration for him grew even further yesterday morning when he fronted up over that VAR howler, which very probably cost my old club Sunday’s League Cup Final.

He didn’t just admit his men inside Clydesdale House made a mistake by not awarding Rangers a penalty for the foul on Vaclav Cerny by Liam Scales. He went even further than that by calling it a “bad mistake” and branding it “unacceptable”. And you know what? As hard as that still is for me to accept, there is some comfort to be had from the fact Willie has come out in full public view and taken ownership of it. By doing that – and being brave enough to be so brutally honest – he has at least drawn a line under the whole episode.

Nothing has been swept under any carpets. There has been no attempt to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. The whole world knew his officials had dropped a major clanger and I really respect him for making no attempt to deny it. The VAR officials had one job when they pulled up their seats in front of the screen on Sunday afternoon and messed it up. They were far too quick to assess that ref John Beaton was right only to award Rangers a free-kick on the edge of the box. They should have been focusing on where the pull on Cerny finished... which was inside Celtic’s penalty box.

And Willie has been big enough to accept that’s simply not good enough where his own officials are concerned. He’s taken full accountability and that is all anyone can reasonably ask of him. Openness,