Clarke hits out at officials for penalty call
Steve Clarke was left feeling hard done-by from officials yesterday – for the second time in a week.
Eight days ago, the Kilmarnock manager launched an astonishing verbal attack on Steven Mclean after watching the referee send off three of his players in the loss to Aberdeen.
It was, he said, then the worst refereeing performance he had ever witnessed in his long career.
And while he did not have near the same strength of feeling about Willie Collum’s performance in yesterday’s defeat, he still had a problem with the official.
Specifically, he felt aggrieved his side had not been awarded an early spot-kick when Celtic skipper Scott Brown tangled with his full-back Stephen O’donnell in the box.
“It was a penalty. Soft, but a penalty. As he goes to play the ball, he gets pushed in the back so it’s a penalty,” he said.
“I think I shouldn’t say anything else about referees.
“It’s better if I don’t go too far down that road but I am just pointing out the fact that it’s push as he goes to play the ball in the box. Normally, it’s a penalty.
“But we definitely deserved more from the game because our players were terrific.
“They gave us great effort, good application, we just missed that little bit of quality on the finishes.
“If you analyse the game we had the best chance of the first half, good opportunities.
“However while I was delighted with the players we don’t get any points because we switched off on a set-piece.
“It was the same last week, even with 10 men, Aberdeen could only score with a set piece. Maybe losing two big centre- halves came back to bite us today.
“But we have a good squad of players – we didn’t fluke our way into the top six – and they always apply themselves for the football club.
“They work hard every week and every day in training and you see it when they come to pitch they can perform.
“They deserve a little break in the remaining three games and hopefully it starts next week at Tynecastle.”