Former Celtic star Chris Sutton couldn't believe the goal the Bhoys had ruled out during their narrow win over St Johnstone on Wednesday night. The Hoops found away past the Saints despite making five changes to their starting XI, with Mika Baur tapping home a Haissem Hassan cross.
It was something of a patchy Celtic display, wbut that should come as no surprise, given the number of changes. Martin O'Neill decided to rotate in a number of areas, even between the sticks, with Sam Johnstone coming in for Viljami Sinisalo, with key players rested ahead of Sunday's first Old Firm of the season.
Celtic had to rely on a big save from Johnstone in the first half, but they managed to make the breakthrough through Baur in the second, and they should have made it two, which would have made the final minutes much more comfortable, but a poor decision from the line official meant a goal was ruled out.
Kasper Hogh jumped and headed the ball from the byline back to Haissem Hassan, who rifled home. The line official ruled out the goal due to believing the ball had crossed the byline, but replays showed the ball certainly wasn't over the line, and stragnely, VAR didn't see enough to overturn it, even though a quick TV replay was enough for eveyone else to see that the ball clearly had not gone out.
Providing his verdict on Celtic's win and the decision, Sutton wrote on X: "Clean sheet and another big 3 points for Celtic. Frustrating final ball in the first half. Got there in the end. Baur neat and tidy with the all important goal. Maybe unfortunate not to win by more after a baffling decision by the assistant when he thought the ball went out…"
In the end, the decision did not matter all that much, but it could have allowed Celtic to see out the game with a greater degree of comfort, which will anger O'Neill. The mistake from the line official is one thing - these decisions are not easy live - but VAR has to do its job and correct the mistake.
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