Celtic boss Neil Lennon has blasted both Rangers’ staff and players as well as the referee for an incident involving Scott Brown in his side’s 2-0 defeat at Ibrox.
The Gers secured bragging rights in Scotland ahead of the summer with a comfortable 2-0 win on Sunday afternoon, James Tavernier and Scott Arfield grabbing the all important goals to seal victory.
However Lennon was left fuming over what he deemed to be a red card for Jon Flanagan that was missed by the officials and took aim at the Rangers bench for what they were saying in the aftermath of what appeared to be an elbow to Scott Brown’s face.
He told the Scottish Sun: “It’s a red card. Again. How the referee has not given that as a red card I don’t know. It’s an elbow into Scott’s face.
“Their bench is shouting, ‘it’s him again’ but it’s a clear elbow into his face. It’s there in technicolour. Jon has got his hands up first of all. Broony is moving to get away and then he elbows him in the jaw. It’s a straight red card – it’s totally unacceptable for the referee not to give a red card.
“You can dress it up any way you want. You elbow somebody in the face, you’re off. So they’ve got away with one there.”
Opinion
Flanagan was lucky to escape with only a yellow for his involvement with Brown, who was surprisingly quiet for much of the derby day clash. It looked for all intents and purposes an elbow to the midfielder’s face from the Rangers man and he was quite right to hit the deck. You can understand why the Light Blues’ bench were up in arms when it was Brown going to ground, the Celtic captain acting as wind up merchant extraordinaire during the last meeting between the clubs, but this time he definitely was not the instigator. You have to question what the referee saw to give only a yellow – either he has missed exactly what happened and guessed in giving a yellow card or seen it and got the rules completely wrong. Either way, Flanagan was lucky not to be given his marching orders in what could have been a game changing moment. No wonder Lennon was left fuming.