The former Premier League official has disagreed with Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell’s assessment of the decision.
Dermot Gallagher reckons Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell shouldn’t be complaining about Celtic’s penalty award in their 4-0 defeat at Parkhead on Boxing Day.
Kettlewell blasted referee Ross Hardie in his post-match assessment for a couple of decisions that went against his side – less than a week after the Steelmen successfully appealed Dan Casey’s red card against Kilmarnock labelled as the worst call he had ever encountered in his managerial career.
Fast forward only six days, he was similarly aggrieved when goalkeeper Aston Oxborough was adjudged to have made contact with Hoops winger Yang Hyun-jun on the stroke of half-time, which resulted in Hardie pointing straight to the spot.
Arne Engels converted the penalty to open the scoring for the hosts, to which Kettlewell admitted: “At the time my gut feeling was that it was soft in terms of how the Celtic player went down from what I felt was minimal to little, if any, contact.
Ref Hardie also booked Motherwell forward Tawanda Maswanhise for diving inside the Celtic box – a decision that Kettlewell also disagreed with. “I don’t think it’s a penalty, but it’s not a dive,” he said. “I’m kind of blown away by that, I really am. That’s incredibly frustrating because it comes back to this level of consistency in the decisions that we make, that we see that are completely different from, for example, the Celtic penalty. I struggle to see that there’s a ridiculous amount more contact in either situation.”
But retired former category one whistler Gallagher reckons the Lanarkshire club have little to complain about and were fortunate not to concede TWO spot-kicks against Brendan Rodgers’ side, with Kofi Balmer’s outstretched arm coming within a matter of centimetres of connecting with the ball.
Speaking on Sky Sports ‘Ref Watch’ segment, Gallagher said: “Luckily for him, he didn’t make contact but look where his arm is. Why would you do this? If it as much as brushes his hand it’s going to be a penalty.
Taking a close inspection of Celtic’s penalty award, Gallagher added: “I talk about this all the time. If that’s a full-back making this challenge it’s going to be a penalty all day, so it has to be a penalty…
