Dermot Gallagher agreed that both penalty calls in the Celtic’s 3-2 victory over Motherwell on Sunday were correct…
Brendan Rodgers’ men were given a penalty for a handball during the first half of their crucial three points against a well-coached Steelmen side.
In the second half, Motherwell were then awarded a penalty following a VAR check on Marcelo Saracchi’s challenge on Tawanda Maswanhise.
Giving his view of the incident on Sky Sports, Gallagher said: “He just stands on his foot. He doesn’t mean to do it, but if you watch there, he just catches him. He is in possession of the ball, and he is going to gain the ball so VAR intervenes, penalty.”
🗣️ “He stands on his foot. He doesn’t mean to do it, but he catches him…”
The Ref Watch team take a look at Motherwell’s penalty vs Celtic ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/zi7epoqepR
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 6, 2025
Referee Calum Scott initially signalled for a goal-kick but changed his decision to a penalty after consulting the pitch side monitor on VAR Gavin Duncan’s advice.
Regarding Celtic’s penalty, when Callum McGregor’s shot struck Regan Charles-Cook’s arm, the former English Premier League referee said: “I think once your arm is up that high you are always going to get penalised.”
“The only doubt is, is it in the penalty area. You can see the referee’s position is perfect and can see it is in the penalty area. Penalty given on the field, correctly.”
Celtic will be aiming to use this international break as a chance to reset – and it’s fair to say it has come at the right time for the Scottish champions.
Motherwell were excellent at the weekend and it was refreshing to see a Premiership side come to Celtic Park and take risks in possession and play with real bravery.
At times, the visitors cut Celtic wide open. But we did deserve to win the game and despite being in turmoil on the pitch as well as off it, the players reacted well to going 2-1 down.
With another international break upon us, Celtic will return to action a week on Sunday with a trip to Dens Park to face a Dundee side that were hammered 4-0 by bottom side Aberdeen as Jimmy Thelin’s side at long last got a first Scottish Premiership win of the season.
Conor Spence
