Celtic were unlucky not to see St Mirren’s second goal of the afternoon chalked off for the push on Stephen Welsh.
This is according to the former Premier League referee and Sky Sports pundit Dermot Gallagher who has been speaking on the latest Ref Watch segment.
It was a disappointing afternoon in Paisley for the Bhoys who tasted their first league defeat of the campaign with Jonah Ayunga capping the scoring off with a second-half header.
However, there has been some controversy surrounding the Englishman’s goal after the Hoops felt he was both in an offside position and fouled Welsh.
And Gallagher believes the 25-year-old did push Welsh in the back and had VAR been in operation, the goal would have been disallowed:
(0:23) “I think he [Ayunga] gets lucky you can’t see here but from the other angle to see pushes [Welsh] in the back pushes him away. Joe Hart has the perfect view. He has the view that the referee wants. I think if the referees got that view, you give foul.”
“Well, they’ll all be reviewed. And I think that would be disallowed.”
TIF Thoughts on Gallagher’s comments…
It is hard to disagree with Gallagher. There is clearly a push in the back of Welsh which can be seen by the way the Celtic man’s back is bent went going for the looping ball.
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And had the push not come from Ayunga then Welsh could well have won the header and the game potentially may have panned out differently for the league leaders.
Perhaps it makes it even more frustrating for Celtic with VAR not coming in until after the World Cup and Gallagher convinced this goal would’ve been disallowed with VAR in operation.