Kris Boyd’s latest appearance on Sky Sports during Celtic’s win over Kilmarnock felt less like careful analysis and more like a pub rant—confident-sounding at first, but weak when examined closely. Listening to him dissect the stoppage time at Rugby Park, it seemed he was more focused on creating a viral quote than offering balanced insight.
After Neil McCann raised concerns, Boyd honed in on the added minutes, steering the discussion toward suspicion rather than straightforward match reasoning.
His main point was that the three half-time substitutions shouldn’t count toward second-half stoppage time. Technically, that’s correct—but that was never the reason for the seven minutes shown, which undermines his entire argument.
In reality, there were four substitution windows in the second half alone. Kilmarnock also faced multiple pauses for injuries, including Lyons being hit in the face and John Jules leaving the field with a muscle problem. Add in two goals, lengthy restarts, and routine game management by the hosts, and seven minutes is entirely reasonable—if anything, it could have even extended to eight or nine.
None of this seemed to register with Boyd. On Sky, he said: “There were three substitutions at half time, so they can’t be added onto the second half. I’m sure the board, they could actually just change it to say ‘until Celtic score’ just hold the board up and say that.” Comments like this are designed to provoke rather than explain. Suggesting that officials were “waiting for Celtic to score” misrepresents how stoppage time works and ignores what anyone watching objectively would see.
Boyd increasingly resembles the typical pub pundit: loud, easily irritated, and convinced there’s always an agenda. On national television, that personality no longer feels harmless—it can push misleading narratives.
Celtic scored late because they kept pressing, not because the fourth official magically extended time. The added minutes reflected game interruptions, goals, and normal stoppages—not favoritism. Kilmarnock had the same seven minutes to find a goal themselves.
Boyd can critique Celtic and question decisions—but when commentary departs this far from basic logic, it stops being insightful analysis and starts looking like satire.
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