St Johnstone boss questions referee’s decisions against Celtic

Celtic have turned results around after a rough stretch earlier in the season, stringing together four straight league victories with their win over St. Johnstone on Sunday.

The match at McDiarmid Park was dominated by the Bhoys despite going behind 1-0 shortly after the halfway mark before Odsonne Edouard’s quick brace a few minutes later put the side 2-1 ahead that would last through to the final whistle.

The Saints’ manager, Callum Davidson, expressed his discontent after the match about what he viewed as inconsistency from the match’s refereeing, per the Daily Record.

Davidson was unimpressed with referee Steven McLean’s decisions that he believed made things much harder for his side. He viewed the lack of a foul call after Glenn Middleton’s dustup with Ryan Christie after going down 2-1 as completely inconsistent with an earlier call in Christie’s favour before the half that resulted in a Celtic free-kick.

Celtic are no strangers to being at the wrong end of refereeing decisions themselves

This is just the latest of incidents among SPFL managers claiming inconsistency with referee’s calls affecting match outcomes, including Celtic’s own Neil Lennon and Rangers’ Steven Gerrard of late.

Unfortunately, more often than not, the Hoops have been at the wrong end but this time, their opponents had a chance to complain, rightfully or not. Callum Davidson said after the match, as reported by the Daily Record:

"“It’s the consistency. He gave a foul in the first half on Callum Booth after saying he went through the man to take the ball. Looked to me the tackle on Glenn was the same thing, if he even did get the ball.”"

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He did admit though that he had not really seen the penalty incident:

"“He did, but I couldn’t really see it.“It was a great ball and I thought he was going to get his head on it, so, yeah, I’m really disappointed with a couple of decisions.”"

While the lack of a call would likely not have swayed the match’s result in the Saints’ favour, it is understandable to see any manager come out in defence of his players when he sees an issue affecting their club’s performance.

Celtic were simply the better side on the day, displaying great tenacity after going down shortly after the half and being able to overcome the deficit quickly on the back of Edouard’s brace who seems to be swinging back into his old goalscoring form, and has crossed the 20-goal mark for the club for the third season running.