Postecoglou may appeal McGregor’s sending-off

CELTIC manager Ange Postecoglou reckons captain Callum McGregor’s late red card against Motherwell was debatable — and has vowed to review the footage before deciding on launching an appeal.

McGregor brought down substitute Ross Tierney in the 90th minute of his side’s 2-1 home league win and was shown a straight red card by referee John Beaton.

However, Stephen Welsh looked like he was in a position to cover the danger and Postecoglou has vowed to take another look at the incident with a view to contesting his skipper’s impending one-game league ban.

‘It is disappointing,’ he said. ‘He’s taken one for the team.

‘I’m not sure it was a red card. It looked like we had a covering player, but the referee was in a better position, so you’ve got to cop it.

‘I’ve got to have a look at it. From where I was — and I didn’t have the greatest angle, I was furthest away — it definitely looked like Josip (Juranovic) or somebody was coming around there, but we’ll have a look at it.’

Motherwell manager Stevie Hammell, however, was very much of the view that Tierney would have been clean through without being impeded.

‘It was a good red card from their point of view,’ he said. ‘Ross is in for sure and I think Joe Hart is in a bit of no-man’s land. Whenever we stretched them and pressed properly, we caused them problems.’

Celtic centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers missed the match along with fellow defender Carl Starfelt — with Postecoglou refusing to say whether the USA international will be back fit for Wednesday’s Champions League trip to RB Leipzig.

‘We will see. He got some treatment again and will get some on Sunday and we will see how he is Monday and Tuesday and make a decision,’ he said. ‘He is not far away but we have another 12 games in 40-odd days, so I am not going to put him in unless he is absolutely right.’

Postecoglou felt his side lacked their usual killer instinct over the 90 minutes yesterday.

‘It should’ve been a lot more comfortable than it was,’ added the Aussie.

‘We had good chances and we are usually are pretty good at putting away. We just lacked that clinical edge we usually have.’