It’s the same player who tackled Kieran.. These challenges can ruin a career but are going unpunished. It shows refs don’t have an eye for the game or are frightened to make any decisions
SAYS BRENDAN RODGERS
football. That’s pretty clear. We’re not worried about that. We’ve gone away to Aberdeen, tough games, when they were direct and we’ve shown we can defend. We can deal with that.
“Stephen Robinson has done a great job, taking over and having to change them from where they were last season.
“He kept them up and you can see the spirit of his team is strong, boys are fighting, which is great. Then they have the class act up front who has the ability to score out of nothing, Moult’s record proves that.
“That’s their style – get it up to the front two as directly as possible, challenge, run and I’ve absolutely no problem with that.
“But referees obviously need to know in that type of game, when there are constant physical challenges, they have to be really firm.”
Until Sunday Rodgers thought he had it rough from the officials at the weekend when Kevin Clancy’s team awarded Hibs a penalty out of nowhere.
Rodgers said: “I tend to think the referees here do their very best. The problem now is the consequence. The officials here are not full-time and that’s not to say they’re not as caring, or anything like that.
“They don’t have the finances up here to pay them full-time but that doesn’t mean that in their own mind they aren’t.
“In games like Sunday you need a strong referee, linesmen and fourth official as a team. That game was let out of control.
“The guys in our game on Saturday were doing their best. But they’re showpiece games. We talk about players being calm under pressure. It’s about ensuring the officials get that support as well because these are big games with big decisions.”
Rodgers did reveal linesman Frank Connor apologised after the Hampden howler. He said: “In fairness he came in and sought out Dedryck. That takes a lot of courage to admit to the mistake. Thankfully it didn’t cost us.”
Rodgers now hopes the officials will start showing just as much courage on the pitch.