Ex-Rangers boss Alex McLeish has hit out at former rival Martin O'Neill over his claims his Celtic side didn't get a fair shake during his time in charge.
McLeish reckons the Irishman's VAR verdict over the handball claim on Connor Goldson in the 2-2 draw between the sides at the start of the month was "bizarre". O'Neill was speaking to the Record Celtic Podcast when he claimed he felt his Celtic team were left wanting over referee calls during his five years at the helm between 2000 and 2005.
And McLeish has fired back over O'Neill's views both in past and present and pointed to his own frustrations as a sign Celtic weren't singled out. Speaking to Scottish Sun, he said: "Martin’s foray into an alleged carve-up by Scottish refs and VAR to deny his old club a penalty in the last Old Firm match was bizarre. When we managed the Old Firm, I also thought Rangers were denied decisions by referees.
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"So if Rangers and Celtic weren’t getting decisions, who was? Games often ended with us feeling aggrieved. But we’d never head down the conspiracy rabbit hole, never. When Martin brought up a disallowed goal in the League Cup final he forgot to mention Hartson missed a last-minute penalty. Was that the referee’s fault too?”
Speaking exclusively to the Record Celtic Podcast, O’Neill admitted to thinking his men were hard done by at times. The Treble winning boss said: “We definitely felt that. People used to say it was paranoia but I just felt there were a number of decisions that we are weren’t given against us.
“It’s funny, from a distance I actually think Celtic have had better decisions in recent years than way back. That might be my paranoia setting in. There were some ridiculous decisions at the time. When the league is so close they can be so decisive. Even in the Motherwell game when Rangers pipped us to the title.
“Motherwell should have had a player sent off inside the first 15 or 20 minutes for a second bookable offence. It didn’t happen, but anyway, I don’t think about it that often, only every three days!”
Celtic have contacted the SFA over their VAR concerns since the video replay system was brought in and with Scottish Premiership clubs seeking an emergency summit with decision makers with the 12 top-flight clubs contacted by the Professional Games Board on how to make rules clearer.
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