Former top Scottish referee says Celtic should’ve had penalty at Fir Park | OneFootball

Former SPFL referee Bobby Madden has said that Celtic should have had a penalty in their weekend win over Motherwell. In a first half flashpoint, Daizen Maeda was bundled to the floor by Stephen O’Donnell which resulted in the ball ending up in the net.

Maeda and his Celtic teammates did not celebrate the goal but instead pleaded with referee David Dickinson to award a spot kick. VAR Alan Muir instructed Dickinson to overturn the decision to award a goal due to Daizen’s arm connecting with the ball to beat Aston Oxborough.

Celtic fans felt that the contact, which denied Maeda a goalscoring opportunity, should have resulted in a penalty with potentially O’Donnell receiving a red card due to his failure to attempt to play the ball. Taking to Instagram, the former top referee stated that he felt it should’ve been a penalty.

“I personally think this is a penalty. The defender is the “wrong side” and makes no contact with the ball. Both players fall to the ground due to contact, in my opinion caused by the defender.”

Madden continued and offered an explanation regarding why Alan Muir didn’t instruct the referee to go to the VAR screen.

“Can you say with certainty though? The main camera angle makes me believe it’s a penalty, but the two low behind cameras that are provided miss the initial contact, so it’s difficult to recommend an on field review without clear evidence.”

Celtic won the game 3-0 as Motherwell ended the game with ten men after Liam Gordon was given a red card. Dickinson initially showed the ex-St Johnstone skipper a yellow but overturned the decision after an on-field review.