Former top ref Dermot Gallagher wasn’t even asked to give his take on Celtic’s penalty claim for a potential Connor Goldson handball Rangers’ derby draw at Ibrox on Monday. Gallagher appeared on a special edition of his Sky Sports Ref Watch but the incident didn’t even appear to be considered worthy of discussion.
Instead, the 65-year-old was only quizzed on the spot kick awarded to Michael Beale’s side when Fashion Sakala went down under Carl Starfelt’s challenge inside the box with James Tavernier converting for his 100th career goal.
Debate has raged since full time over the Goldson incident with Record Sport revealing how the Parkhead club are looking for talks with the SFA over that and other VAR incidents. Fans would have been keen to hear Gallagher’s take yet it was completely blanked by Sky Sports as they picked out the Light Blues penalty for discussion instead.
And Gallagher was in no doubt over that one. He said: “He slides in and goes to ground and when you go to ground like that you have to win the ball. He doesn’t win the ball and as Fashion Sakala comes back he just catches his back leg and brings him down. And I think he knows he’s done it because if you watch Carl Starfelt he actually gives himself up as much to say ‘What have I done?”
Former Cardiff City striker Jay Bothroyd was also in the studio and agreed with the ex-whistler. He said: “That’s an obvious penalty. If you go to ground in the penalty area you need to win the ball or at least get a touch on the ball to change the direction but he hasn’t touched the ball, he’s lunged in and it’s the correction decision.”
Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton and fellow ex Celtic striker John Hartson hit out at the decision, with Willie Collum VAR on the day and not asking match official John Beaton to take a second look. But former top Scots ref Stuart Dougal said: "We have to look at what the laws of the game say first of all. The current laws at the moment are, did the player make himself unnaturally bigger? Has there actually been a handball?
“If you are a Celtic fan then you are going to claim ‘yeah I can see a little nick there’. If it doesn’t hit his hand, assuming that it does, where is it hitting? And it looks as if it is going to hit his head. So in that case he is not making his body unnaturally bigger."
READ NEXT
