...And now Rodgers is seething at officials too
BRENDAN RODGERS last night hammered all four officials as ten-man Celtic stuttered to a goalless draw against St Mirren in Paisley. The Parkhead boss criticised a red card shown to midfielder Olivier Ntcham, the Frenchman being sent off after receiving two bookings prior to half-time. Foiled and frustrated by a dogged Saints side playing their first game under new boss Oran Kearney, Rodgers became the latest Premiership manager to take issue with the standard of refereeing, claiming Andrew Dallas and his assistants David Roome, Daniel
McFarlane and Nick Walsh gave a ‘poor demonstration of officiating’. Ntcham was fortunate to escape sanction for some early infractions but was eventually booked for persistent fouling after 24 minutes. However, Rodgers claimed the decision to show a second yellow for a challenge on Stephen McGinn 13 minutes later was ‘not very good’. ‘I never like to focus too much on the referees,’ he said. ‘But, for both teams, I didn’t think any of the four officials were very good. There were lots of incidents they got wrong. ‘The sending-off for me is not a yellow card. If you watch it again, the first one is a booking and we take that. But, before the second one, there is an incident when Olivier makes contact with the ball and wins the ball, but the referee gives a free-kick against us. ‘Then, when you see it in the corner, Olivier is running across to block the ball up the line and the St Mirren player (McGinn) is falling over as he plays it. ‘So from that — and the fact it’s in the corner makes it lively — the ref falls for it and he gets a second yellow. For me, it was neither a second yellow nor a sending-off.’ Celtic were also irate over a Scott Brown yellow card in the second half and another for midfield team-mate Tom Rogic. Insisting he wasn’t picking solely on referee Dallas, Rodgers added: ‘I don’t think there was a good one between them all this evening. Listen, it’s simple — I don’t think they were good.’ Rodgers’ comments are the latest in a series of targeted verbal attacks on referees by managers in the Premiership, with the SFA forced to issue a statement on their much-criticised disciplinary system yesterday. ‘I think the fact we are speaking about them lets people see there’s been indecision,’ continued the Celtic boss. ‘There’s been a spotlight on the refs and I don’t want to increase that. But, yeah, it was a poor demonstration of officiating. ‘I thought Tom Rogic fouled the St Mirren player but he got on the ball and ran away. Then he got booked for something ridiculous. We put all the risk into the game, we put a winger to right-back, put another striker in and played 4-3-2 and tried to do everything to win, but we didn’t.’ Substitute Leigh Griffiths came closest to earning all three points, a stoppage-time strike ruled offside as Celtic failed to draw level with Hearts on points at the top of the league. The Scotland striker signed a new fouryear deal earlier in the day, vowing to lead the chase for ten-in-a-row. ‘I’m here for ten so that’s a start,’ said Griffiths. ‘But my main focus now is trying to get back in the team and stay as fit as possible, and try and get my goal tally up. I’ve hit the 100 now and I want to try and continue that and aim for more heights.’