Ronny Deila has described Steven McLean’s decision not to award Celtic a penalty against Inverness Caley Thistle as ‘hard to take’.
Leading through a stunning 18th minute free kick from Virgil van Dijk Celtic were in total control as the first half was drawing to a halt.
Stefan Johansen’s cross fell perfectly for Leigh Grifiths whose net-bound header was punched clear of goal by Josh Meekings.
McLean and his assistant Alan Muir both had a clear view of the incident but waved play on to the astonishment of both teams and the thousands of supporters who witnessed the incident.
Having a penalty to take against ten men would have put an entirely different complexion of the game with Deila feeling that McLean’s mistake changed the complexion of the match.
“I don’t have to say so much about that as everybody saw what happened,” the Celtic boss said of the penalty decision. “Everybody knows that the game would have been finished. Referees make mistakes as well but this one is hard to take.
“It’s hard for me to discuss this. It’s a tough blow for me and the boys. We are very disappointed. We should have killed the game off when we had 11 v 11.
“We had good control of the game and enough chances to win the game, but when we went down to 10 it got more difficult, we had to run more and in the end we got tired.
“Everybody was angry but that’s why it’s so hard to get the treble as small details can make you fail, and we have to put it behind us as quickly as possible and focus on Wednesday and fight for the title.”
Craig Gordon was correctly ordered off ten minutes into the second half with Inverness going on to win 3-2 after extra time.