SHOULD Scott Brown play in tomorrow's League Cup Final?

For me, that's not even a question.

Of course he should. To drop him would be a huge own goal.

Sure, Ronny Deila could have done without seeing pictures of his captain on the front page of a newspaper looking less than at his athletic best after allegedly enjoying a lads' night out.

Will it do Scott any harm? No. Should he have done it? No.

Rather, it's not so much doing what the newspaper says he did, it's being caught doing it.

Scott should be more aware that, in these days of intense scrutiny and social media, there is nowhere to hide - not even in his home town of Edinburgh.

And there's no denying it presents a bad image.

But let's get one thing straight. He's entitled to a night off, especially when he isn't training the following day.

There have been precious few opportunities to relax with his mates this season.

The fact it appeared to have ended this way in the week of a cup final has made it more of a story.

But it's not as though it was last night or tonight. It was four days before the final, and will have no effect on how he performs tomorrow.

Well, it could - because I think Scott will use the coverage this has been given to run, tackle and fight even harder to bring the trophy back to Celtic Park.

Scott is one of the fittest players in the game, and was one of the hardest trainers even before Ronny arrived and presented his demands to the squad about how they work.

I'd dare say it will not be the only time he has ever had a drink, if indeed he did, this season.

The only problem Ronny could have with this is down to the fact he makes such play about 24-hour athletes.

However, he uses Scott as the example of how he wants the others to live their life, train at 100 per cent every day and play the game for 90 minutes.

So how can he have a go at him now, let alone consider dropping him for such a big game?

Ronny might reprimand him if any guidelines or rules are shown to have been broken. But I'd just have a quiet word.

Besides, Ronny himself has been spotted enjoying a night on the town.

From my experience, most Norwegians enjoy a swally - those that can afford alcohol over there, at least.

Arsene Wenger is very big on sports science, diet, etc. But, it doesn't stop some of his players enjoying a cigarette and still playing well for him.

Jock Stein never wanted any of us to drink at all - but we still did.

That didn't stop us being one of the fittest teams I've ever known, even to this day.

You have to get the balance right between work and play.

This incident takes me back to the night Jimmy Johnstone went for his row down at Largs.

Like Scott, we had gone out four days before we were due to play England at Hampden with the full knowledge of manager, Willie Ormond.

The press got hold of the story, and demands were made for Jinky be dropped.

But Willie stood by him - and Jimmy rewarded him by being man-of-the-match in the 2-0 win.

At the final whistle, he turned to the press box and held up two fingers ... to indicate the score.

The point is that incident helped galvanise the team for that game, and it has gone into Scottish folklore.

That was a situation involving most of the squad. This time, it's Scott on his own.

But the motivation to show everyone will be the same. And the best answer to any criticism is to play out of your skin and bound up those stairs to lift the cup.

It has added even more headlines in the build up to this final, and has perhaps put even more edge to it.

The events at Tannadice last weekend in the Scottish Cup tie, when three players were sent off and the Compliance Officer followed up by citing Nadir Ciftci, could have a carry over into tomorrow's match.

But this is a completely different game because it is a final and on a much better surface where more football can be played, reducing the need for it to be such a physical contest.

I hope referee Bobby Madden and his team have a better day than the men on duty at Tannadice.

Craig Thomson was badly let down by his assistant, Graham Chambers, who over-reacted by rushing onto the pitch to get involved.

He then became culpable by identifying the wrong player, Paul Paton instead of Calum Butcher, which put Craig into an impossible position.

The Compliance Officer took a long hard look at it before issuing a Notice of Complaint to Nadir, a charge which was contested and found not proven.

But, who looks at the part played by the assistant referee, and what action is taken against him? The fans, players and managers deserve to know.

Jackie McNamara believes the whole thing could have been nipped in the bud if the ref had blown for a foul when Scott tackled Nadir.

These days, it could certainly have been deemed over-robust. But I'm old school and prefer to call it hard.

I also think Virgil van Dijk's challenge was worthy of a yellow card, as was Calum Butcher's reaction.

I'd also have booked Aidan Connolly for diving.

It's disappointing the SFA will not explain why they have taken the action - or non-action - they have because justice has to be transparent.

Let's hope everything is much more clear cut tomorrow.

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here