Does Desmond finally have their number?

My observation last week that the SFA had, perhaps, chosen the wrong issue to close with a lawyered-up Celtic might be worth another read.

I  had a long chat today with an impeccably placed source, who told me that this most recent development at Hampden was not unconnected.

Of course, I couldn’t possibly comment.

As has been stated here many times, apropos match officials’ incompetence is random; therefore, ipso facto has no pattern.

Sadly, for the chaps at Hampden, I’m told that Mr Desmond has had the numbers crunched by an outside agency that looked into key in-match decisions over a long period of time.

That deep dive informed him that the same inexplicable errors seem to be recurring to the benefit of one particular franchise in the SPFL.

My information is that he now has a handle on the issue, as he can see the numbers.

He has, after all, always been a numbers guy.

Meanwhile, the die is cast, and the case against Brendan Rodgers might turn out to be a governance own goal on a par with the late Jim Farry and Jorge Cadete.

The SFA chose to charge the Celtic manager for his post-match comments after the game at Tynecastle.

They picked this particular hill, which could prove to be a fatal choice.

It just might be terrain more suitable to the forensic abilities of CEO Michael Nicholson and the legal heavy hitters that Desmond has brought to augment the Celtic case.