Ange Postecoglou has condemned the disgraceful abuse aimed at Kevin Clancy and insisted Rangers didn’t lose last weekend because of the referee’s big Old Firm call.
The whistler was subject to sickening messages and death threats after disallowing a first half striker from Gers striker Alfredo Morelos in the 3-2 Hoops victory at Parkhead. Postecoglou believes managers, players and club officials have to be careful not to fan the flames after games. But he insisted both teams were guilty of making more errors than the officials and Clancy was not to blame for Gers going down.
The Celtic boss said: “If you look at last week it was a game that had everything. It was exciting, we won so we were happy. I get that. But nobody can tell me that was a high quality football match. There were mistakes from both teams. Both teams made a hell of a lot of mistakes. We certainly analysed ours on the Monday.
“And I would say both managers would agree they probably made mistakes on the day. The fact people think one individual — in this case the official — and one decision has decided the outcome of the game is just not right.
“It’s not right. I felt we should have had a penalty at Ibrox. That’s my opinion. But it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. These are all opinions. We don’t have to make the decisions. When an official has to make a decision we have to respect the fact that’s what they have done.
“When you’re analysing a game — and I get it, particularly here in Glasgow where if you take one side or another you’re painted as being in one camp or the other — but I think there are enough independent observers who could walk out of that game and say: ‘it was a game full of mistakes and ultimately not one decided the game.’
“My role on a Monday is to analyse our performance and our players were outstanding in their character and will they showed to get the job done in a difficult game with a lot riding on it. But we made a lot of mistakes during that game and that’s the feedback we gave the players. If we want to improve that’s where the improvement will come from.”
Postecoglou admitted targeting the referee was out of order and he’s hoping Police can round up the guilty parties. But he also believes the people in the game have to dial down the criticism at times.
Postecoglou said: “It should not come to that and hopefully the authorities are dealing with whomever has been found going down that route. We understand we are all working in a public space and with that comes scrutiny but it should always be on a professional level. It should never interfere with players, managers’ or officials private lives.
“That’s totally out of bounds and it should be dealt with strongly —but especially with officials because players and manager, we have clubs and supporter bases that can get behind us. But officials rely on the integrity and respect of everyone else involved in the game to protect them from things like this.
“It’s a timely reminder to everyone — myself included — that the language we use and how we address these things is really important. I’m disappointed it’s come to this and hopefully the authorities deal with it.”
Postecoglou wants to draw a line under the Old Firm furore and focus on the job of driving to the Premiership finishing line. The champions are at Kilmarnock tomorrow with Reo Hatate and Liel Abada still at least a week away from returning from injuries.
The Hoops boss can shatter records in the remaining seven games of the campaign but he said: “We haven’t even looked at it. That’s been the key to us sustaining our level of performance and consistency of results.
“I’m sure if you asked the players, very few of them would be aware of those kinds of things. Come the weekend, what is important is that the players go out and perform. It’s not easy sometimes, in Glasgow and Scotland, to keep your head down but this group has done that.
“Maybe me being an outsider has helped because when you are in it all the time, maybe you feel a need to respond to the noise that is out there. Maybe that can wear you down but a lot of the players are also new and we have taken the view that the noise that’s important is from within Lennoxtown. We will let the football do the talking and answer anything during the games.”
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