TALKING MOTHERWELL
AT FIR PARK OTHERWELL midfielder Andy Rose has accused Celtic attacker Callum McGregor of playing for the late penalty that maintained their 66-game unbeaten run at Fir Park last night, claiming that McGregor “flopped over”.
The champions were trailing to a Mikael Lustig own goal as the game ticked into its dying moments, when McGregor burst through into the Motherwell box only to be denied twice by heroic home keeper Trevor Carson.
As Rose and McGregor chased the loose ball, the Celtic player hit the deck and was awarded a spot kick by referee Willie Collum, much to the disbelief of the Motherwell players, who were livid about a penalty decision against their opponents for the second time in three days.
To make matters worse for the Fir Park side, it was Scott Sinclair, the pantomime villain in Lanarkshire after the controversy of the Betfred Cup final, who stepped up to tuck it away and deny the Steelmen victory.
“I don’t think it was a pen,” said Rose. “In the box I have an awareness if he was going to commit and get to the ball first. But I’ve seen it back, I’ve planted my leg and he’s just ran into me and flopped over.
“When the ref blew the whistle, I was shocked. It’s a tough job of course, but for me it was definitely not a penalty.
“Did he play for it? Clearly. Of course. He’s gone down, and I think it was really soft. You see players going down in the box a lot and it’s happened twice to us in a week now.
“It was a massive decision. People have different views but for me there was no intent to bring the player down. He runs into me. He could have easily stayed on his feet, didn’t and it’s obviously cost us.”
Rose believes that the referees in the last two matches have been influenced by the size of Celtic and their support, with them unlikely to give such penalty awards to a smaller team like Motherwell.
“Are they decisions we wouldn’t have got at the other end? Definitely,” he said.
“At the moment it’s really frustrating. I think the boys were tremendous and Trevor Carson had one of the best games I’ve ever seen for a goalie.
“To only come away with a point is tough to take.”
Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson meanwhile refused to be drawn on the penalty decision, preferring to focus on a thoroughly entertaining game of football.
And he reckons that the competitive nature of the contest proved that his side could have matched Celtic in Sunday’s League Cup final, had they kept
Ma full complement of men on the park.
“I’m not going to talk about the decision,” said Robinson. “I just want to talk about the game.
“Two good teams were both trying to win the game. Celtic had a lot of chances and so did we.
“Trevor Carson was outstanding. Let’s talk about Allan Campbell’s performance, Chris Cadden’s performance, Kieran Tierney, Scott Brown. There were some quality performances out there.
“Let’s not talk about the ref. I can’t control them. It was a terrific game of football.
“I’m not going to make any comment at all on the penalty. I want to talk about how good I thought we were, how much we bridged the gap and how we got about Celtic again.
“Perhaps if we’d had 11 men on the pitch on Sunday it might have been a really good cup final.”
ROBINSON was proud of how his young players performed on the night, particularly 20-year-old defender Cedric Kipre, who turned in a solid display just days after being sent off in the Hampden showpiece.
“Cedric’s display was no surprise whatsoever,” he said. “He’s going to be a top player. We’ve got some good young boys here.
“We’ve got limited resources here. We know that. We don’t pay much here but what we’ve got is a group of really honest boys who’ll do anything and run themselves into the ground for this football club. I’m so proud of them.”
“In his first game he was up against Scott Sinclair. He kept him relatively quiet – and a again in the recent game with Celtic.
“Sinclair was voted the best player in the league and I told him that’s the hardest game you get in Scotland.”
Foster admits times have changed since he was breaking through as a kid at Pittodrie.
Nowadays, veteran pros are happy to lend a helping hand instead of looking after No.1.
“Russell Anderson was the Aberdeen captain when I broke through and he was brilliant with me,” recalled Foster.
“We’re competing for the spot but I don’t see it as competition with Aaron – it’s for the right-back spot.”