Crying about not getting a penalty decision, Ross County player conveniently forgetting about what happened last season…
Celtic v Ross County – Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart warms up before the cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park, Saturday August 5, 2023. Photo Steve Welsh
Ross County were denied a spot-kick on Saturday and one of their players has been quite vocal on his thoughts about it. Admittedly it looked a penalty on first glance, but a VAR review correctly confirmed no offence had been committed.
Simon Murray the player in question who was denied the opportunity has said he was punished for being too honest. Simon son, you weren’t punished, there was no contact and when you knew the opportunity had gone you went down looking for the penalty.
“There was an infringement on me and it made me stumble. I was trying to stay on my feet and be honest and score. There was contact. The ref said that there was contact but just not enough for a penalty. If that’s in the middle of the park and I go down straight away then it’s given as a foul. It’s a penalty in my eyes,” Murray said as reported by Daily Record.
Murray added: “The penalty Celtic got was a fairly similar incident. He went down straight away but it was still the same sort of collision. They get it and we don’t. As a player coming away to Celtic Park you need things to go your way but it didn’t seem to happen.” Dry your eyes, son.
Simon also remarked that you need things to go your way at Celtic Park. Well, Simon they did last year. Ross County were of course awarded a spot kick with the game deadlocked and it was a decision that was an absolute joke.
Simon himself wasn’t present back then, but several of his team mates and his manager were.
Ross County equipped themselves well for the first quarter of the game on Saturday, and were very lucky not to open the scoring on a couple of occasions, but wanting a penalty for that incident is very much clutching at straws.
Celtic v Ross County – Kyogo Furuhashi and team-mates applaud the fans after the cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park, Saturday August 5, 2023. Photo Steve Welsh
Neither the referee nor his VAR colleagues deemed it to be a penalty. Perhaps if he’d dived the referee might have bought it and maybe VAR would have backed the referee Nick Walsh’s call. We’ll never know.
Incidentally the VAR operation, aside from this incident, seemed to be much sharper and dare I say, more competent at the weekend. Hopefully that’s a taste of what’s to come for the rest of the season and beyond.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
