The Scottish Mail on Sunday

Griffiths denies diving in the box

- By Graeme Croser

LEIGH GRIFFITHS last night insisted that he is not a cheat after marking his 26th birthday with a yellow card for diving in yesterday’s Premiershi­p victory over St Johnstone. Griffiths, who also scored Celtic’s first goal in a 4-2 win, was penalised by referee Craig Thomson after going to ground in the penalty box as Saints defender Richard Foster challenged.

‘There was contact in the box,’ said Griffiths. ‘I’m not going to go down unless there was contact. I said that to the ref — he’s refereed other games against me and he’s not seen me dive once.’

Celtic skipper Scott Brown recently labelled Jamie Walker a cheat for throwing himself to ground and earning Hearts a penalty on the opening weekend of the season, an accusation reinforced by the subsequent two-match suspension incurred by the player.

Thomson’s decision to caution means there will be no retrospect­ive action taken against Griffiths, and Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers backed up his player.

‘I spoke to Leigh

about it and he felt contact,’ said Rodgers. ‘I will need to see it again on the replay but I thought the referee was excellent today and made good decisions.

‘Leigh felt there was contact and he goes down. I haven’t seen anything in training to show that he is like a lot of players who like to simulate to provoke the ref into giving a penalty. But he’s got a booking, so we have to accept it.’

Meanwhile, Rodgers has admitted he craves the arrival of a new creative midfielder before the transfer deadline.

The Parkhead boss has made four signings since taking over at the club, goalkeeper Dorus de Vries being the latest to join after Moussa Dembele, Kolo Toure and Scott Sinclair.

Celtic stand to rake in £20million if they capitalise on a 5-2 lead over Hapoel Be’er Sheva in Tuesday’s second leg of the Champions League play-off and Rodgers knows qualificat­ion for the group stage will strengthen his hand in landing the quality he craves.

‘I think I still need one other player so, hopefully, we can get that done,’ he added.

‘If you’re in the Champions League, it may make it more attractive for some. I would like to add another creator to our game.’

St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright insisted there was little comfort to be taken from the late rally that saw his team score twice in the last 10 minutes yesterday.

He said: ‘I’ve had better days. Celtic were excellent, particular­ly in the first half.

‘We deserved to be behind at half-time. Their three goals were all poor from our point of view.

‘We showed character in the second half and passed better. Who knows, with a wee bit more time, we might have pulled off an unbelievab­le result.’

 ??  ?? IN DEFENCE: Rodgers says Griffiths is no cheat
IN DEFENCE: Rodgers says Griffiths is no cheat

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