Neil Lennon has noticed something rather strange about this season. With theRangers getting awarded penalties galore (less so now that the need has lessened) and other teams not having a chance in hell of getting a spot kick against them – ask Hibs for instance who have had three stonewallers denied over their last two games against the Ibrox 2012 start-ups, little or nothing is ever said about these strange situations.
Yet when Celtic get a couple of spot-kicks decisions (hens teeth springs to mind) all hell breaks loose. You get the Compliance Officer springing to life, the retire referees lodging their anonymous blue-tinted opinions or even opposition managers ignoring not just one ‘contact’ fact regarding the penalty award but TWO to be able to insist that the Celtic player has dived.
Step forward Jim Goodwin the St Mirren manager who called Greg Taylor out for the penalty incident in his side’s 4-0 home defeat to Celtic on Tuesday night. Goodwin called Taylor a diver, implying he cheated to win the penalty but Neil Lennon was having none of that.
“He’s out of order — well out of order. Greg didn’t dive,” an angry Neil Lennon said, as reported by Scottish Sun. “I’m not having other managers accusing my players of diving when it’s clearly not true.
“Jim needs to rein it in a bit. It was quite clear Greg was pulled back and he was also clipped by Ryan Flynn at the top of his foot. The referee deemed it a penalty.
“Look, he’s gone on the wrong side of Flynn, he’s got across him. Whether Ryan has clipped him accidentally or not, it has been enough to bring Greg down. So I don’t see where anyone can accuse him of diving.
“People say ‘Oh, it’s soft’. We’ve looked at it again and there are two contacts — one on his arm and one on his foot.
“Whenever we get a penalty these days there is a whole controversy about it, but it is clear there was contact.
“It was clear for Albian Ajeti, and it was clear for Taylor. Where, all of a sudden, this emergence of diving’s coming from, I don’t know.
“Greg’s one of the best pros you could work with. We won the game 4-0, and if I was Jim I would be concentrating on what happened to his team in the second half as opposed to accusing other players of cheating or diving. I think that’s totally out of order from him.”
While Albian Ajeti was cited and faced a ban – before his charges were thrown out after Celtic contested the charge – Greg Taylor has NOT been charged. Had he dived – or if anyone else other that the St Mirren manager thought he’d dived – there would have been a simulation charge forthcoming from the Scottish FA who like to lodge such accusations against Celtic. So not even they reckon Taylor dived.
Meanwhile The Celtic Star has been raising funds for The Kano Foundation this weekend. If you order Matt Corr’s outstanding debut Celtic book, INVINCIBLE, you can get the author to add a personal dedication for you – idea for forthcoming birthdays etc – and he’ll be delighted to do that for you. Best still all the money will go to The Kano Foundation who are currently fund-raising so that they can continue to provide their unique and wonderful opportunity for so many thousands of youngsters to get the chance to visit Celtic Park, often for the very first time. You can read more about this using the link below and can click on the Invincible ad below that to order – and remember ALL the money goes to The Kano Foundation.
READ THIS…Celtic Supporters, Get Invincible and Send £20 to the wonderful Kano Foundation
Overnight position was £340 and another two sales already this morning take that to £380 raised for @KanoFoundation.
Wonderful generosity from the Celtic support, as always.
Another six orders for INVINCIBLE🍀🍀🍀 will get us to the magical £500 marker, which would be fabulous. https://t.co/T3sBEw1FlT
— Matt Corr (@Boola_vogue) February 14, 2021
