Lennon demands an explanation over decisions
The Celtic boss is deeply unhappy about two decisions which went against his team after issuing a pre-match wish that the rookie ref would get the big decisions right.
Collum bottled out of giving Lee McCulloch a second yellow card in the 34th minute for fouling Georgios Samaras who was in full flight and 30 yards from goal.
Having already booked the Rangers midfielder in the fourth minute Collum decided against any further action despite the cynical nature of the foul.
As the teams came out for the start of the second half McCulloch had his arm around Collum’s shoulders.
Midway through the second half Collum awarded Rangers a penalty as Kirk Broadfoot fell theatrically fell to the ground. Collum had got himself into an awkward position at the incident and had his back to the ‘contact’ as he raced to get to a better position.
“He has got a lot of questions to answer,” Lennon explained. “I have problems with my team but you have to get the big decisions right. I’ll be asking for an explanation.
“I want to know why McCulloch was still on the pitch, it was blatant obstruction when we were breaking. It was a second yellow and they should have been down to 10 men in the second half.
“And I feel let down on the penalty incident for sure. It’s a big decision. I have seen a replay of the penalty and it looked soft.
“I’m not sure he saw it and I’m not sure why he has given it. There was a long way to go in the game and we were trying to regroup but Daniel pulled out of the tackle and Broadfoot went down very easily. At 2-1 we were still in the game, at 3-1 it is very difficult for us.”
After his round of media appearances last week to explain Dougie McDonald’s interpretation of events at Tannadice it’ll be interesting to hear what Hugh Dallas has to say about Collum’s display.
Within football Collum is recognised as a protege of Dallas and refereed today’s game in the same dramatic manner as his mentor.
The McCulloch decision could be debated but there is no excuse over the penalty with Collum badly positioned and not seeing the incident in full.
It’s hardly surprising that a 31-year-old with just four years experience in the SPL is out of his depth in a Celtic-Rangers match. Hopefully a sustained spell in charge of junior matches or in the lower divisions will sharpen his decision making and positional sense.
New SFA Chief Stewart Regan is scheduled to meet Dallas tomorrow to investigate the sequence of events following the on/off penalty decision at the Dundee United-Celtic game which has led to the apparent resignation of Steven Craven.
Hopefully Regan will also be looking for an explanation as to why there are only three SPL referee’s with experience of handling an Old Firm match which is partly to blame for Collum being thrown in to today’s game.
Over the coming days Lennon will be painstakingly assessing his own players after losing their first domestic game of the season.
The Celtic boss will be wondering why Ki Sung Yeung was left to do so much work in midfield amongst other questions.
Goalscorer Gary Hooper was given little in the way of support with almost all of Celtic’s attacking possession channeled through Samaras on the left wing.
“There will be regrets in our dressing room,” Lennon added. “Probably some players will feel that they didn’t do enough or do themselves justice, hopefully they’ll take that on board and come back stronger.
“I have to look collectively and the manner that we lost the goals, that’s a mentality thing. We’re working on changing that, obviously there are still areas that we need to improve on.”
Tellingly Lennon added: “I can analyse the game afterwards and see where we went wrong and who didn’t really show up today.”
SFA call Hugh Dallas to account
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