David Dickinson and Alan Muir have serious questions to answer after their handling of the Daizen Maeda penalty controversy at Fir Park yesterday afternoon…
The Japanese forward was poised to score when he was barged from behind by Motherwell defender Stephen O’Donnell. Maeda fell and in doing so his hand touched the ball and diverted it into the net. Dickinson awarded the goal. Daizen though signalled that he had been pushed and was asking for a penalty.
Alan Muir, correctly, told Dickinson to hold play until he checked the incident and the goal decision was overturned and play resumed. Muir appears not to have reviewed the contact on Maeda that resulted in him falling forward onto the ball. He did not advise Dickinson to go to the screen.
🍀 McCowan’s solo strike
❌ Goal disallowed
🤝 Full-backs combine
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🟥 Red card for crunching challengeRelive the action from Celtic’s convincing victory at Motherwell ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/AHS2ajl8Gs
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) October 27, 2024
This incident yet again highlights the increasing problems that Willie Collum will experience as he tries to justify clearly incorrect decisions. Yesterday’s thought was different. Had Dickinson been asked to go to the screen to check whether Stephen O’Donnell had committed a foul or not then that would have been one thing. In effect Muir refereed the incident and made the call himself, if indeed he even looked at it. If he did not that he has failed to do the job properly.
BBC Sportscene looked at this incident, together with the penalty that St Mirren were denied at Ibrox, in last night’s show. Let’s stick to the Fir Park incident for the moment.
The pundits on the BBC show were in 100% agreement that Celtic should have had a penalty.
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Michael Stewart said: “It was always going to be a disallowed goal, but it’s a penalty kick. I can’t for the life of me figure out how this had now been given. Daizen Maeda is going in a straight line. Stephen O’Donnell is trying to get in front of him to get the block on him – in terms of getting his body in front – but he never does, and there is a collision and it’s clumsy. It’s a foul. It’s a penalty kick. It’s clear as day.”
Marvin Bartley agreed: “I am in total agreement with that. I don’t understand how if the referee does miss it that VAR doesn’t intervene, because that for me is a blatant penalty.”
Surely VAR is there to review the incident and not part of the incident. Let’s assume that Daizen Maeda was offside just as he entered the box (he wasn’t), then he barged from behind by Stephen O’Donnell, then he fell with his hand hitting the ball and diverting it into the net. Dickinson awards the goal then Muir does his check.
No goal handball. Push possibility of penalty, check for offside. Draw the lines. Celtic player offside, decision free-kick to Motherwell OFFSIDE. That’s fair enough and Muir is there to do exactly that, take the play back to the beginning to check all factors.
Yet all he appears to have done is check the goal, identified the handball and given a foul to Motherwell for handball. That is NOT what is supposed to happen.
Sky Sports appeared as confused at the match officials yesterday, probably because they could hear them and there was clearly something unusual in what they were hearing, or not after the incident was quickly hushed up. Sky did report that the Celtic bench believed that it was a penalty.
Their punditry at the internal incidentally was poor with McFadden claiming that it wasn’t a foul because Stephen O’Donnell was running in a straight line and Kris Boyd just being his blue-nosed self, not a penalty because it was Celtic. Had this happened at the other end of the park then he would have been screaming for it.
Boyd, of course, like Dickinson and Muir all support the same team do they not? And maybe that’s the best explanation as to why VAR didn’t review this incident properly?
Speaking to BBC Sportsound after the 3-0 Celtic victory at Fir Park, both managers gave their assessment of the match.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: “They’re a well-organised team. First half, the moments we were good was when we were switching the play. Against their system, it’s important to keep doing that. In the early stages, we trapped ourselves. The spaces started to open up and that’s where the first goal came from. Second half was about managing the ball better. The players were excellent.”
Brendan Rodgers is still looking for Celtic to go up a gear, despite a sweeping 3-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park.#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/CwFvxXGkTl
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) October 27, 2024
Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell: “I was desperately wanting us to put aside how we performed last week and I thought in the opening quarter we were excellent. We were really disciplined without the ball and Celtic didn’t really have much in the game in the way of chances, I thought we by far had the best opportunities. I think it’s a lesson that you have to capitalise on those opportunities. Lennon Miller will be disappointed with the chances he missed but I thought he was terrific again.”
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