Douglas Ross recalls THAT X-rated banner at Celtic Park

The outgoing leader of the Scottish Conservatives was the target of an X-rated message from the Green Brigade during a Scottish Cup tie in the early months of 2023.

Ross was undertaking his secondary job as a linesman that day, assisting referee Steven McLean for the cup encounter against St Mirren.

Fans of the ultras group made their feelings clear about Ross during the match, unfurling a banner displaying the message 'VAR Decisions: Douglas Ross is a ****'.

Speaking to Graham Spiers at an Edinburgh Fringe event, the politician said: "My immediate reaction was because of that word that rhymes with hunt, it wouldn't really get reported.

"I was hopeful because they'd used that swear word, no one would be able to report it. It turns out they could, but just put in the asterisks.

"It's funny. It came up at the weekend again. We had this great weekend away with guys I went to college with. The guy that was hosting us, his son had some of his pals round, and they didn't realise I was ‘the Celtic banner boy’. That's how they referred to me.

"So when they knew I was ‘that’ Douglas Ross, we had a bit of a discussion about it.

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"It was Celtic, St Mirren. It was in a Scottish Cup game. It was a late kickoff, and I remember I just awarded a goal to Celtic. It was the first goal of the match. It was a tight onside/offside decision. I kept my flag down. VAR confirmed straight away, the goal’s good.

"So my first point was: ‘Why are they putting that up when I've made a decision correct in favour of Celtic?’ If I got it wrong, I could understand that. And then I thought, secondly, I don't want to look at it too much because I don't want a picture taken of me staring at this. But still, they managed to do it. Then I just thought, ‘well, it's done now’.

"I thought that looks pretty big, but maybe I've just got such great eyesight as a linesman that that it's bigger than it actually is. But it turned out, no, it was pretty big."